SpiritsXDevils
by 921Dota2
Summary: An alternative universe which both spirits and demons exist. The story took place at orignal novel Date A Live - Natsumi Search.
1. Prologue

This story is inspired by Devil May Cry also my first time to write a fanfic. I pardon for my lack of English grammar but will try my best to improve them. Enjoy.

Prologue

A woman wearing with combat type of outfit, having her laser sword at her both hands. She was facing something that is beyond his knowledge.

A creature stood in front of her. It wields a katana-like sword at the right hand. The appearance was not anything like human. It has two horns at forehead, a blue long coat coveringthe full body, evil sharp teeth, red eyes.

The woman was shocked after seeing it. She never felt so much tense from it due to abnormal energy flow from it.

"How?! You supposed to be dead! How are you still…", she yelled.

As she hasn't finished the word. The creature blinked and disappeared in front of her.

"What the…". Her eyes were unable to track it due to hyper speed movement from it.

Before she realized, she was knocking back hard. She managed to stop the moment to prevent to knock back further and balance herself.

She, Ellen Mira Mathers, the world strongest wizard in her CR-Unit Pendragon. A combat suit that greatly fight against any threat. Especially Spirit. Still, she was surprised and curious while that creature was able to touch her.

"What the hell are you…?", she questioned her with doubt.

"……". The creatures didn't respond but staring at her.

"Silence type, huh? Whatever, your tiny struggle is useless to me."

She didn't get the answer she wanted and raised her sword, pointing it towards the blue creatures.

The creature made its second move. He swung his sword and a form of cutting line slashed towards her.

She activated her energy barrier to block the attack. But the attack did not hit what she thought. The slash became invisible and hit her chest, leaving a cut wound on it. She was forced to deactivate her barrier and stopped the bleed from the wound.

"The slash cut through the barrier?! No, more like passed through.", She thought. She smiled and begun to laugh.

"Interesting. It's been a long time since I had a good fight with Princess.". She declared a challenge towards the creature by making a taunt.

The creature stood still and didn't respond to her challenge. Except this time, a demonic voice came from its mouth.

"**Power…**"

"What?" She questioned at the word from it.

"**I…need…power**!!!". The creature screams out loudly and rushed towards her. Ellen prepared the attack in combat mode. A fierce fight and sword clang can be heard loudly in the room.

All the fight scene were seen by a young girl with 25-years old appearance having green straight hair stuck in an experiment tube. She was looking at the fight between the wizards and the creature. She mumbled a name before passed out.

"Ren…"

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Introduction

**Morning**

"RINGGGGGGGGGG……….."

An alarm clock rang in the room and awakened a young boy.

"Come on, just 5 more minutes…"

A young boy with white hair who wore his blue white striped pajamas mumbled unclear and sticker his head under the pillow.

The alarm continues ringing and getting louder and louder. The loudness pissed the young man off and he grabbed the alarm clock and threw at the wall. The clock was scraped into pieces.

"...", he was self awoke and barely opened his eyes until he saw the time of scrapped clock under his bed.

His eyes suddenly widened and all his sleep mood was thrown behind.

"Crap!" He shouted and rushed towards the bathroom. Usually, normal people will tide themselves step by step. But He manages to do all of these at the same time. Changing from his pajamas into school uniform, he took his bag and ran towards the front door.

"Faster! Faster! Faster!" He locked the door and quickly ran downstair. He used all his strength to rush towards the direction of school.

"Hope it's not too late."he self talked while running.

* * *

**25 minutes later…**

Ren finally reached the front gate of the school - Raizen High School. A high school was built in Tengu and also where he was currently studying.

"Yes… I made it." He tried to catch his breath after the run. The sweat had already wet the back of his shirt. A man called put his name and he looked at where the voice came from.

"Good morning Yato."

A blue-haired young man about the same age as him. He also wore a school uniform just like Ren. Ren raised his body straight and replied his regards.

"Yo, Itsuka."

"Hmm? You look tired and your are sweating." Shido questioned Ren irregular breathing.

"I was almost late to school for overslept."

"I can relate that."

Both of them had conversation while walking inside the school. Shido Itsuka, the classmate of Ren Yato. He only knew each other due to helping out someone closer to him. He has also had a rumoured of multiple girlfriends and much weird stuff around him. But to Ren, he looked no different than a normal student. So it is fine with him.

As both of them were still talking to each other, a hand appeared beside Shido and pat on Shido's shoulder.

"Morning Shido", a girl spoke with a cheerful voice. She has long dark purple straight hair. Her eyes matched the color of her hair and has the most gorgeous face. Her expression and energy surely bring positive vibes to the people nearby,

"Oh, good morning Tohka." Shido replied, saying her name. Tohka Yatogami, also Ren's classmate and Shido friend. She was transferred to this school a few months ago. Also known as one of Shido rumoured girlfriends.

"Umu! You too, Ren!" She seems happy after seeing Shido and not forget to say morning to Ren. He raised and waved his hand as the response of her regards.

"Morning Shido." Another voice called out Shido name. The voice came from white hair girl behind Shido. She had a short hair with 3 blue hair pin on her left side. Her eyes were azure blue. Especially her emotionless face was iconic since it looked no different from a well made doll.

"Origami. Morning."

Origami Tobiichi, A perfect student in Raizen high school. In school, she always scored the perfect. Homework, sports, exams, you named it. Her emotionless face is her iconic identity. She ranked at top 3 wanted to be her girlfriend in school. Not sure who came up with this though. Clearly she was also one of Shido rumoured girlfriends.

"Oh no…", Ren was worried after seeing Origami showed up. Especially in front of Tohka.

"Ceh… what an eyesore, Yatogami Tohka.", the perfect student gave Tohka a disgusted stare. The comment from her instantly triggered Tohka.

"That was supposed to be my line, Tobiichi Origami!"she shouted.

Both of them looked at each other with angry stare. As the narrator, the war atmosphere can be sensed by the people nearby.

"Hey you two…", Shido tried to calm them down but was afraid of the terrified atmosphere spreading by them.

"..." Ren kept silent and patted Shido's shoulder with a bitter smile on his face.

"Rang…" The school bell interrupted his speech.

"Crap! We're gonna be late for class!", Shido shouted and ran towards the class.

"No shit.", Ren followed his path and rushed to the class. So did the girls.

"Language."

"Erghhh…"

* * *

**During the break time**

"Man...Finally the class's over.", Ren raised his both hands to the back and stretched his back. A noise came from his stomach. It's lunch time for him.

"Great."He complained himself for not having a single bite in the morning. He stood up and about to leave the class and buy his meal at the cafeteria. But he was stopped by Shido.

"Yato, you haven't prepare your meal right?. Mind if you take this instead?" he asked Ren gently and gave him a lunchbox with delicious food.

"For free? Wow, thanks. I guess…"he appreciated the offer and took the lunch box from Shido.

"I suppose I owe you one." After taking the lunch box from Shido, he returned to his desk and opened the lunch box. It has chicken nuggets, vegetables and rice inside the box. The smell started teasing Ren's appetite.

"This… looks delicious." He spoke to Shido.

"I'm glad you like it." Shido smiled and opened his lunchbox too.

Both of them enjoyed lunch together peacefully, at least that is what they wished to.

"Why the hell should I enjoy a meal with you?!", the purple beauty shouted.

"You can leave if you want to, you are not worthy to join with Shido.", said by the emotionless girl.

"And here we go.", Ren thought while eating his home made lunch. He wished to enjoy a peaceful lunch but today's a nope, like usual. There is always noisy drama in the class.

"Haha…", Shido was just giving a bitter laugh while he could listen to the argument between girls in the background.

"Yo… Itsuka-kun, Yato-kun." A spiky haired boy appeared in front of them. He is Hiroto Tonomachi - one of the classmates and also a close friend to Shido. He is the biggest mouth at the school. Most of the rumours came from him.

"What you do want, Tonomachi?" Shido asked.

"Sup, Hedgehog?", Ren regards him with the nickname he was given.

"How cruel...is this your response to your best friend. I am sad, he made an obvious fake sad expression.

"Cut it out, what do you want?", Ren asked him again with an impatient tone.

"Nothing, just wanna let you guys know about something interesting. Got your ears?" Shido simply sighed and Ren was showing a curious expression.

"Have you ever heard the news? A weird pillar tree happened in Redgrave City?"

"I know that news. It has been reported all over the several weeks. But it's over, isn't it?" Ren replied while eating his lunch.

"What's the sudden feeling of interest about this news? Isn't that a natural disaster?" Shido questioned.

"Right. The news kept reporting it as a natural disaster. But the truth is…". The spiky boy cleared his throat again and smirked. The smirk gave Ren and Shido chill.

"The truth is, it was the work of demons." He said in a serious voice.

"..." "..." "..."

Both of them went silent for a few seconds. After that, they packed up the empty lunch box and returned to their seat. Shido and Ren gave him a stare, thinking their friends couldn't get any weird. Both of them return to their seats without words.

"Hey! What's the awkward silence? Aren't you guys a little bit curious about it?! I mean, clearly that wasn't an ordinary natural disaster! Especially that tree coming from nowhere!" He shouted as he tried to get their attention.

Ren sighed and looked at him with a disappointed look. "Considering you were ranked in the top 1 of having big talk in the whole school. Your words lack of …conviction." The words hit him too much and yelled, "Wait, am I really that bad? By the way, does our school have this kind of list? Why haven't I heard of this?". He cried and looked at his best friend - Shido. He then put his both hands at his shoulder.

"Itsuka… you trust me right?" He spoke poorly and hoped for kind words from Shido. Instead of a proper reply, Shido shook his head and responded, "Sorry, Tomonachi."

The words from them hit him too hard and he nearly went into depression quickly and went back to his own seat silently.

Ren was worried he might be hitting Tonomachi too hard and whispered to the blue-haired boy, "Is he going to be okay?" Shido smiled and replied, "He's always like that, he'll be okay." After that, they prepared the study materials for the upcoming class.

* * *

**After school**

The school bell rang, everyone stood up and left the class. Before they could leave, the teacher stood up, raised her voice and made an announcement.

"Everyone, please do not stay late outside. There were some missing people incidents outside. Do be careful on your way home." The announcement made more people to discuss it.

"Missing people?" "Yes, there were a few cases that happened recently." "What could it be?" "Is it possible kidnapping?" "Or murdered by a serial killer?" "Or captured by aliens and doing some experiments?"

Many students were making their own assumptions and theories about recent incidents. But it does not bother Ren that much. He packed up his things and left the class without any words. But he was stopped by someone.

"Ren, do you want to walk together?" Shido kindly invited Ren to join their little group. Tohka and Origami stood at his back and stared angrily at each other. Ren smiled and joked, "What? So I can join into part of your harem wars. I'm kidding. Thanks but I prefer walking alone. I will see you tomorrow." He gently rejected Shido's offer and continued his way back home. Shido also sent his regards to Ren with waves. But he noticed something was off about his classmate and felt curious. His worried emotion quickly led two girls' attention from his back.

"What's wrong, Shido? You looked unhappy." Tohka came forwards. He faced Tohka and shook his head, "No, it is just… Ren looks like he has something in his mind." That's right, he barely knew Ren much. He was in the school long ago. It was until this year he shared the same class as him. The reason they knew each other was because of the help recently. They do talk a lot, but not that much. He wished he could spend some time understand him more.

The words came from Shido, making the purple princess curious. "Why would you say that? Is it because of his atmosphere?"

"Atmosphere?" Shido questioned. Tohka nodded, "Yes, I can feel some weird energy from him. Like he hid something from himself."

Shido watched Tohka thinking hard but he smiled and tried to comfort her. "Probably is your imagination. Come on, the teacher told us to go back home sooner. I prepared Tohka favorite for today's dinner." As soon as she listened about the dinner, she redrew every mind inside her head and approached Shido with shining eyes.

"What is it? Salmon fillet? Burger steak?", Tohka was excited about any possible food she could think of and her drool from her mouth. Shido can only smile, looking at Tohka's excitement and her cheerful attitude. While both of them were happy to discuss, Origami remained silent, looked down and had deep thoughts.

"Ren Yato…"she mumbled.

* * *

**Back to Ren**

So, where to eat?

Ren walked on the road and thought about what should be his dinner. Before he made up his mind, he heard a woman screaming from the dark alley. The scream instantly attracted his curiosity and he ran towards the alley without hesitation. After running inside, it was dark and barely to see what's in front. All he can see is people sitting in front of him. The shadow covered most of the body. Judging from the screaming and body shape, it was a girl. Ren wanted to help her and yet he felt something was off. The cold wind blowed and gave him a chill. But he still approached to the girl and asked, "Are you alright, Miss?"

No words came from the girl but she stood up slowly. A few seconds later, the girl slowly approached Ren.

"I am fine, but you.. aRE...DEAD." The voices turned from a normal voice into demonic echoes. The light exposed her true form. The light revealed her horrific face with 6 red eyes. The teeth were definitely not human teeth as it was sharp like a shark. The distortion smile totally added up the overall horrifying atmosphere around her. Both of her hands and legs were growing and turned into inhuman claws and the color of skins turned into dark green.

"What in the..", Ren shocked as he saw the abnormal phenomena by his own eyes. He attempted to walk back slowly but it was blocked by similar creatures like her. Ren can only think about one possible. Yes, a setup. "Damn it!" He spotted there were no ways to return. But the worst part, there were more coming from that woman-like creatures appeared behind.

"HAHAHAHA… This trick never failed. Humans are so easy. They are easy, dumb, but they do brought us the best meal to fill our stomach" She laughed maniacally, so as her partner. Ren saw there's no hope of escaping. He kneeled down and placed his hand on the floor. His long hair covered his both eyes.

"Oh, beg for mercy, human? That won't work for us. We will slide down your skin slowly, cut down your arms and legs for each of us, then, we ripped off your chest and sucked you dry until every last drop. Don't worry, we will not be the first and will not be the last. Soon you will join the rest of the victims." After the long speech from the boss lady creatures, she laughed again as she celebrated her absolute victory.

While she still enjoyed her victory satisfaction, she was interrupted by a deep voice from the young boy. "So, those 'missing incidents...' are these your work too?" She chuckled and approached him confidently. She squatted down and looked at the kneeled boy.

"Yes, yes! We are the one who did it for all those. Like I said, your human kinds are too easy. A little moaning and seduction, they will be walked into it and be our delicious meals." She replied with licking her lips around. She stood up, raising her hand and charged towards him to give a quick deadly blow.

"If you want to blame, blame yourself for being born as a weakling mortal! NOW DIE!", A loud cracking sound can be heard. Blood spilled around the wall and the floor.

She expected something colorful from his brain. Then, she found out the blood split around was not his blood but her right hand. More specifically, her 'half-right arm'. Her right arm went into half. Blood came from her wound. She then felt the pain after realized her arms was chopped off by someone.

"AHHHHHH, MY ARMS!!! WHAT THE F-?" The pain was unbearable to hold back and she screamed out loud. Before she can finish her words, another quick cut to her front chest. The chest split out with massive cut wounds and blood spilled again.

"There is one thing you need to learn." Ren spoke. He carried a long blade at his right hand. The blade was 3 feet long, the blade itself surrounded by blood from the creatures and sparked electricity. The woman creatures widened her eyes and could not believe what had happened just now. For the first time, no humans had any ability and will against her until today. She could not have a 17-years old young boy have such weapons to cut her down quickly.

"Not all the humans are weak like you speak." Two creatures charged towards Ren. He stared at them and smirked. He turned around and moved towards them with incredible speed. He dashed towards them and gave them a quick cut from the bottom. Each of their hands were cut down within one dash. Both creatures screamed but it only maintained for a few seconds. Their body cut into half and blood spilled everywhere.

"Please be quiet. Don't want to receive complaints from neighbours." He smirked and looked at the female demon. He walked towards slowly and pointed at her and her crews with his blade. "So, who's next?"

Pain and anger blinded the female demon's sight. She cannot let anyone stop them. Especially weakling races like humans. She held tight her fists and ordered her crews. "You little cocky bastard, I changed my mind. Everyone! I want him alive and I will personally skin you alive and chop you into several parts! I will make sure it will be slow and painful!" Ren rubbed his nose and joked, "Oh, I would like to see how you do it, Queen of disgusting." The taunt from Ren enraged her even more. She then pointed at him and everyone charged at him including herself. Ren went into combat mode as he raised his blade and ducked down a little.

"Time to kick some demon ass." He rushed towards them.

* * *

**Few minutes later**

Blood covered almost all the alley regardless of both sides of walls and floor. The meat pieces separated into different places. No living creatures can be detected. Only one man stood still. Ren scans the area to make sure no threat can be found until he spotted one trying to escape by crawling. It was that bossy female demon tried to seduce Ren. Both of her legs were cut off by Ren just now.

"Damn it, damntidamnitdamnit. How!? How can a mere human defeat much of us!? How can he possess such power!? HOW?!" Before she could conclude her mind. A man stood in front of her. It was Ren who stood in front of her, yawning at this bored fight.

"What? Going so soon? You said you want to rip me apart?" Ren spoke perky. The woman stopped crawling forwards and moved backwards nervously. "Human, let's talk about this. Forget what happened today. I will leave this city! Immediately! No more missing people here! Just please! Leave me alone!" This time, she begged for mercy like her previous victim begging her for mercy. Ren swung his blade around, "Okay, in one condition."

"What is it?" She was relieved for a moment but her face changed after hearing the condition. "I need you to stay dead. That's my client's demand."

The words shocked her too much. She knew she's not going to make it out here. Her defense line of mind was finally broken. She used all her will power to charge towards Ren with roar. But her head was cut down before she could have had a chance to attack. The body and the head separated and felt on the ground. Both of the creatures vanished slowly into dust and disappeared on scene. Ren cleaned the blood on his blade and pressed a button on the handle. The blade returns to nothing but a handle only, keeping it into his bag on the ground.

Before he left the scene, he realised his body and clothes covered with blood. The smell does not please him at all. Leaving him with a sigh. "Great."

On the rooftop, a girl observed through the whole fighting scene. She was with unbalanced length of twintail black hair, wearing red-black gothic lolita suit. She was standing on the rooftop, enjoying the view of the city. But she didn't expect something that caught her interest.

"Kukuku… Interesting…" Creepy voice from her and her golden left eye with the clock moving backwards.


	3. Chapter 2

"..." a woman ran with all her might while holding his child's hand. They ran through the massive fire surrounding them. The houses were collapsed and the fire kept spreading rapidly. The people nearby were either screaming or running or both. But there's no time to be a savior here and care about those people. She had one objective in her mind - to escape this place and keep the child safe.

Suddenly, a white beam splashed in front of her and exploded in front of her and others. The explosion was powerful enough to keep the people pushed away. For those unlucky people who stood in front of her, they did not have a chance to survive.

She stood up, and looked around the child she took. Luckily they never had much injured. After ensured the children's safety, she tried to help them up and continue to escape this fire disaster. Just before they managed to hold their balance,the child pointed at the back of her and shouted, "Mom! Look out!"

A lift was fallen towards them due to the blast happened ago. She widened her eyes and pushed away the child. A loud bang as the lift fell on the ground.

"Rnngggg…"

The alarm rang again. Ren slowly opened his eyes and he stopped the alarm. The phone displayed at 10:30 am. Today was Sunday, so there was no need rushing things. He raised and sat on the bed, holding his forehead and recalled the dream.

"That again…"he mumbled.

* * *

**Few minutes later**

He went out with a dark blue hoodie and white shirt inside, wearing black straight trousers. While he was walking on the street, he took out earbuds from his pocket and put on it and his hoodie, intended to separate himself from the real world.

A few minutes of walking, he finally reached his destination, a coffee shop. The outer design just like the other common cafe. The shop was named Shadow.

He opened the front door of the shop, the coffee aroma can be smelled from here. He took the seat, waiting for someone to serve him. A man with messy long black hair walked out from the kitchen. He had the middle age good looking, wearing black shirt with rolling sleeves and white arphon.

"Oh, it's you." He spoke with his deeper voice. "Afternoon, Chief," Ren replied. The man who was called Chief was the owner of this coffee shop and the only worker in this shop.

"May I have your order?" He spoke and put his both hands on the table. Ren instantly replied without thinking.

"The usual". As soon as Chief heard the order, he walked to the kitchen and prepared the meal. While Ren waited for his meal, he looked around the cafe. Furnitures were well 's even a jukebox near the front door. The music played from it added the atmosphere for the quiet cafe. Chief came back from the kitchen with a cup of drink in his hand.

He served the drink in front of him. It was chocolate milkshake, one of Ren's favorite drinks. He held the straw and drank the milkshake. When the sweetness of milkshake hit his tongue, he let out a satisfied reaction.

"That is why chocolate milkshake is always the best drink ever!" He shouted. Chief let out a few laughs, watching the boy enjoying his drink.

Chief put his both hands on his chest, helding back at the rack behind him. "I assume you got that job done right." He spoke. Ren was still enjoying his milkshake until half of it. He then looked at Chief and smiled, "Way too easy, saving my time to find 's my lucky day when they showed up like garbage waiting to be dusted."

"Hmmm…" Chief impressed about the capability of the white-haired boy in front of him. Ren drank the milkshake until it reached the bottom of the cup.

Chief turned around and walked to the kitchen. Ren was again, biting the straw and stared at the coffee rack. There's a lot of coffee beans filled in bottles of glass on the rack. There are names on the surface but Ren was too lazy to remember.

"Reported to the client. Said he'll transfer the cut tomorrow." Chief returned from the kitchen with a smile. He continued, "Same rule. Mine two, your eight." Ren nodded after hearing the split of the payment.

"Any new jobs come in?" He spoke. Chief made a surrender pose and replied, "Come on, boy. You already took more than an ordinary mercenary can do in a month. You try to steal others' opportunities ?"

Ren remained his poker face but Chief can see his disappointment in the eyes of white-haired boy. Chief spoke again, "Alright alright. I will let you know if any new jobs come in. Hey, why don't you use this chance to take a break?"

"Hmmm…." Ren considered Chief's suggestion. He is right, he already took many jobs like others. Way too much. But for him, it's not enough. He needed more, the more he hunted down the demon, the greater chance he would find 'it'.

"Helloooo…" Chief snapped out of Ren's deep thinking. Ren stood up and put out the cash on the table. He turned around and walked towards the front door, leaving the cafe.

"This kid…" Chief scratched his head while looking at Ren leaving the store. Before he could think more, another customer walked in. "Oh, welcome."

After Ren left the shop, he was thinking about where he should hang out. There was plenty of time to spend until evening. He passed by a movie theater and was attracted by a poster. It's a poster about a retired assassin fighting the whole gang to avenge his puppy.

"Hmm… guess I'll spend my time in the cinema." He walked to the counter and bought himself a ticket. After the purchase, he walked into the theater room.

* * *

**Evening**

A light beam appeared in the middle of the area, showing a blue-hair boy with his casual outfit after the light faded. He was looking around his surroundings and looking for something.

"Hey, Kotori. You sure this is the right place?" Shido asked as he put his right hand on his right ear. A girl voice came from the headphone Shido currently wore.

"According to our info, "Witch" should be around here somewhere. Put some effort don't you?"

"Right…". After receiving the order from his dearly sister. He must find the new spirit before AST did. He found himself in an abandoned amusement park. All facilities are either broken or getting rusty. Probably the best hiding spot for spirit to avoid AST. Shido ran through the park and nothing good came up. When he was about to give up, noises can be heard from the other side. He went to the direction hastily. While reaching it, he saw a young woman standing there, facing the other side. She has a jade green long hair and her eyes color pair with her hair. She had the extraordinary model look. She also wore the witch costume. But there was one thing that caught Shido's curiosity. She was facing someone and talking with it. Is it possible AST? If it is, shouldn't they shoot to kill on sight instead of talking. The curiosity occupied Shido's mind and slowly approached without making noise. Before he could peek behind the bush, his sister's voice came from his headphones.

"Shido, we have trouble!" She spoke panicky. The voice quickly had his attention and get down before the spirit noticed him. "What is it?"Shido removed the headphone temporarily to recover the loud voice from it and put it back later. "Welp, you might wanna take a look to yourself." Kotori suggested Shido to see it with his own eyes better than describing the situation. He peeked again and widened his eyes.

"Ren…"

A green-hair spirit was talking with a white-haired boy. He is Shido's classmate and also his friend - Ren Yato. "Why is Yato doing here?" Shido asked Kotori back. "We don't know. At the moment we turned on the surveillance camera, she was already talking with him. Looks like they were having a good time." She watched and was surprised that a Spirit was able to talk normally with an ordinary human. Well, there might be exceptions like Kurumi. Currently, the spirit's status was maintaining at normal level. "What should we do? We can't put him in danger. As soon as AST arrived, he might be in trouble and scared."

"Don't worry. We will keep monitoring. For now, be a brave man and show yourself. We will take care of the rest." Kotori picked up a lollipop and put on her mouth. After the taste, she let out a line of words.

"Now, let our date begin."

* * *

**Earlier that time**

Ren walked on his way home after the movie. While he was thinking about his dinner, he noticed he passed by an abandoned amusement park. He walked into it and spotted many utilities were either getting rusty or destroyed. Considering he still got time before dinner time, he walked around the park and old memories were brought back.

"The good old times..." he mumbled and smiled, enjoying the refreshing wind blowing to him. He did remember this place. He used to hang out with his mother almost every holiday. The carousel, rotate coffee cup, food stalls, best thing to enjoy since he was young. The best part is the ferris-wheel. You can see every part of the city. But, everything was changed due to the fire disaster 5 years ago. Everything was burnt and collapsed to ashes, including this place.

"Hey….. Are you listening?" a female voice interrupted his mediation. He looked at where the voice came from. A young lady was floating in the sky. She has long green hair and charming eyes. The clothes, more like her costume she wore, was a witch costume. Some parts of her clothes were semi-transparent to expose her skin.. He knew that Halloween had come closer but it was still too early to celebrate the day. Before he reacted, the witch slowly landed on the ground and slowly approached Ren. She took a closer look at Ren's face. He was attracted by her gorgeous look at the moment, but he instantly fell back and held his waist.

"Hey, hey. Don't be so cautious. I'm not gonna hurt you. Unless you are one of them." She spoke. "One of them? Who?" He was curious about the words from her. Is she mentioned about other mercenaries than him? Or demons? But after a few observe, she does not look like a demon to him. Just an ordinary lady wearing a halloween costume. Couldn't see looking for candy at this time? He thought.

"Nice costume. Are you prepared for the Halloween costume competition?" To break through the awkward silence, he started greeting with a joke. The lady seems happy about his greeting. "Thanks, but this is no halloween costume." She continued. "This is my astral dress. I'm the Spirit."

"Astral… what?" Again his thought was full of questions. Astral dress? Spirit? Surely he got a lot of info from the old man at the coffee shop to get the knowledge about demons. But Spirit, this is the first time he ever heard.

Before he thought much more, he questioned her again, "So, Miss Spirit. For a beauty like you sure have a sense of humor, but may I know what you are talking about?"

She chuckled and became laughing out loud. "You sure are an interesting human." The laugh made Ren more confused. She recovered from her laugh and apologized for her action, "Sorry, sorry. Now, where to begin…?"

After a few conversations with the lady, Ren knew that she claims herself a Spirit. An extraordinary existence beside humans. Well, for him he sure witnessed nough abnormal situations. This will not be his last either.

"So, let me get this straight. You were born as Spirit and knew nothing from the beginning. Chased by some sort of military groups to hunt your kind?" He summarized her whole story. Natsumi was a little angry on her face. "You don't believe me?" Ren chuckled and replied, "Well, I heard enough of weird stories from my old man. This surely ain't the strange event for me." He continued. "Yeah, I believe you." Natsumi listened and was interested in the old man mentioned by Ren. "Old man? You mean your father?"

"Not exactly. He was the coffee shop's manager and also the broker who got me the jobs." Ren described Chief to Natsumi. The green-haired witch nodded while listening to the story of him and the demons.

"So, you are the mercenary focused on demon hunting and that Chief trained you and gave you this job?" This time, Natsumi had doubts about hearing Ren's story. "Hey, what's that face? You looked like you didn't believe me either." Ren complained. Natsumi smiled, "Likewise." She continued, "You know. This is the first time I talked so much to a human. Guess you are not unfun at all."

"I will take that as a compliment." Ren thanked her. While two of them were having a good time, a strange noise came behind the bush. "Who's there?" Ren shouted. A man showed himself from the bush. He was Ren's classmate - Shido. He waved and smiled awkwardly.

"Hi… fancy seeing you here Ren." Shido slowly raised up and showed himself. Ren was surprised to see his classmate. "Itsuka?" He mentioned his classmate's name and walked towards him. "I was trying to pick up some ingredients for dinner. I was passing through here and heard some noise. What a coincidence." Shido made up and replied to Ren.

"Hmm… Whatever." Ren had suspicions about Shido but gave up due to lazy thinking. The green hair witch also walked toward them. "My my. Is he your friend?" Natsumi joined the group and asked Ren. "Good evening. My name is Shido Itsuka. I'm his classmate and also his friend." He greeted her formally.

"Heeh…" She again looked closer to Shido like she did to Ren. Shido was a little red face because of the close distance between them. "Tell me, Shido. Am I pretty?" she asked. Shido was surprised by her question and Ren was letting out an 'eh' sound. Shido was shocked by the question asked by the Spirit in front of him. After a few consideration, he replied, "I think you looked pretty." The words 'pretty' even make her excited more than just now. "Really? Then, which part of me makes you think I'm pretty?" she asked again but this time she raised her voice, exciting like a child.

"Well… you have a pair of charming eyes, nice body shape like a famous model and tall height...". Natsumi continued asking, "Then?" Shido also described, "Beautiful and smooth hair..." Before he finished describing, he was hugged by the excited witch. Her smile was pure like a little girl and raised her tone even higher. Shido was barely breathing since his face was stuck between two… huge balls. Natsumi was too excited and unable to notice Shido's current situation. "I was better in this look… " she mumbled. Shido noticed the words came from her.

" Ahem… I think you might have choked him a little." Ren spoke out as he pointed at Shido. After hearing the advice, she released Shido and Shido was able to catch his breath. Natsumi was still happy about Shido's compliment. Ren rolled his eyes and let out a sigh.

"May I know your name, Miss Spirit?" He asked.

"Just call me Natsumi. I don't like to be so formal." She replied and gave them her name. Before they could continue, a missile flew towards them. She raised his left hand and turned it into some sort of soft pillow and dropped on the ground.

"Oh my. You girls sure knew how to knock off a party." Natsumi looked at the sky where many girls were wearing combat suits, flying in the sky and wielding guns. One of them was having a rocket launcher which was shot out just now. She was surprised by the attack she made turned into a cartoonish object.

"Damn it. AST!" Shido was shocked about the AST arrival. Clearly he wasted his golden opportunity to chat with Natsumi. Then, he quickly looked at Ren. He might be way too confused about the current situation. But he noticed that Ren was always in front of them, Shido widened his eyes, looking at his classmate walking towards without any hesitations or fear.

"What in the…?" ASTs were confused watching a citizen watching towards them. The black-haired girl noticed and declared a warning. "Citizen! Stay away from…" Before she finished, Ren spoke out what all of them were unexpected.

"Hey! Are you girls also going for halloween competition? If you do, mind pointed out where the competition was held?" Shido was even worried after hearing Ren. Natsumi chuckled a little while hearing his word. "That idiot." Kotori watched the screen from the ship and watched Shido's classmate being weird.

Before Ren got his answer, he looked at the group who were discussing together about the boy and the bizarre question he threw out. "What should we do, captain?" Another AST asked the black-ponytail girl. The captain was confused for seconds but she wasted no time, her primary objective is to get the civilian out of here.

"Boy. You need to get out of here. This is no place for playing around." Ren smirked and spinned around. "Technically, this was the place to play around." He hinted at the old theme park facilities around him. At this point, Shido had already given himself up while Natsumi held her stomach and tried not to bust out a laugh.

The captain was annoyed by the cocky boy and had enough of his bullshit. "Final warning! If you don't get out of the way, you will be considered a threat and terminated on sight!" She raised her voice and declared the final warning. Shido tried to stop his classmate's madness but he saw Natsumi walk towards Ren. She walked past Ren and looked at ASTs. "You girls sure not to learn your lesson." She raised her right hand and shouted, "Come here, Haniel!"

A broom was summoned in his hand. The girls spinned around it and prepared in combat mode. Ren watched the green-hair witch summon her so-called Angel. He chuckled a little, "So much fit to your outfit." He continued, "I guess I should not let a girl handle this alone." He reached his waist and took out a handle. The handle turned into a medium long sword on his hand. Natsumi looked at Ren's weapon and smirked, "I hope your skills do more than merely words."

"Fire!" The captain ordered her team. AST soldiers fired their weapons at them. Missiles and bullets. Natsumi cast a spell and unleashed a magical light to the fired bullet and missiles. The attack was turned from lethal firing objects into candies with cartoonish visuals and sounds. "Ahhh, how sweet." AST soldiers switched out their current weapons and replaced them with melee weapons.

"My turn." He tightened his sword, prepared the incoming attack from AST. Two of them charged forwards. Ren parried the attacks at the same time. The third AST tried to attack while Ren was busy. But her combat suit quickly changed into fluffy costume.

"What the hell!?" The soldier was surprised by her sudden change and fell on the ground. "Thanks... for the...assist!" He shouted and pushed back ASTs. He hit one of them with the back of the sword and knocked her off in the distance. The second AST tried to attack from behind. Ren blocked the attack from his back and spinned around with a kick. The second AST was knocked out to the bushes.

"Let me get this straight. This is self-defense." He declared. Before he could attack, he sensed a familiar aura nearby him. He looked at the direction where the aura came from, a group of dog-like creatures slowly came out the shadow. The creatures had a dog skull and were covered in fire. Shido looked at the creatures and pointed out, "What the hell were those?" Ren frowned. He didn't expect demons to come out in this perfect timing. He shouted at Natsumi. "Hey, beauty! Can you handle this on your own?" Natsumi looked at Ren and smirked. "Who are you talking to. Leave it to the big sis."

Ren let out a sigh and walked towards the creatures. Shido tried to stop him, "Hey, Ren. What are you doing!?" Ren smirked and waved his hand. "Don't worry. Just take a seat and watch." He backhand held his sword and lowered her body. "Time for the main dishes." Both demons fired a fireball towards Ren and exploded on the scene. "YATO!" Shido shouted. After the explosion dust faded away, there was neither Ren nor his existence can be found.

"Hey, where are you guys firing at?" The voice came from behind demons. The demons turned around and saw Ren was standing right behind them in one piece. After seeing their target was fine, the demons roared and started to form up a formation. One of them was impatient and simply charged towards him. Ren charged forward with hyperspeed.

Two demons were quickly cut into pieces. Another dog charged in and tried to bite Ren. Ren made a backflip and threw the sword towards its head. Ren charged forward again and did a flying kick to the sword. The swords penetrated the whole body of the demon and cut into half. The last two demons looked at their kind were slaughtered by a young boy, afraid to attack forward.

The white-haired boy watched as the last two demons were standing still. He taunted them, "Come on, lil puppies. You can do it." One of them was unable to withstand the taunt and rushed forward. Just about he leaped and widened its mouth, the demon was kicked to the skies and a painful roaring. Ren grabbed the whole demon and pointed at the others. "Fire in the hole." Ren smirked and hit at the demon stomach with force. The demon fired the fireball towards the other demon. The loud explosion occurred after hitting the target. Ren grabbed at its tail and spinned around faster and faster. He yelled and threw out the last demon with his all might to the sky. The demon quickly vanished in the sky.

"What a day." He swiped off the sweat from his forehead. Ren kept the sword behind his waist and joined Shido and Natsumi. Luckily, their fight was over as well. While he approached them, he found out something ain't right. The atmosphere between them was intense rather than the relaxing just now. Natsumi seems to have an argument with Shido. After they approached them even closer, Natsumi summoned her broom and rode on it. The last words she said before disappeared.

"That's it! From now on, I will make sure you will suffer in your entire life!" She flew away and quickly vanished in his sight. AST also chased after the disappearing Spirit. As soon as AST switched back to their normal form, the captain shouted to her team. "Get her! Don't let her escape!"

"What about the boy?" One of her team asked. The captain looked at the white-haired and looked at her team. "Forget it. Spirit's out priority." Her team heard the order and continued to chase down the escaped Spirit.

Shido was in confusion after that. "Hey, you alright? What happens to you and Natsumi?" Ren asked while slowly approaching Shido. Shido shook his head, "I'm fine. But I have no idea what is going on? She was suddenly getting angry after the explosion just now. She mentioned her secret." Shido explained the situation he encountered just now. Ren touched his chin and narrowed her eyes. "I see ... trying to hook her our right?" Ren jokes. "Heyyy…" Before they could leave, Shido looked at Ren with doubts, "What was that just now? I saw your fight. That skill and weapon… and also that creatures..." He continued, "What are you, Yato?" Ren didn't reply and walked towards the entrance of the theme park. "Hey, Yato!" Shido tried to stop Ren by walking in front of him. Shido looked at his eyes and frightened. His eyes were different just now. His eyes were scarier and threatened. But it didn't scare Shido away. He insisted on stopping in front of Ren to get his response.

Ren noticed his classmate was stubborn to know about him and let out a sigh, "I know you have a lot of questions in your mind. Here's my advice, try not to get into my world too much. There's thing not to know more than knowing anything." After he advised Shido, Ren walked around him and left the park. Shido was staring at him and much thought came through his mind. Not only pissed off a Spirit with unknown reason, but also witnessed his other side of his friend.

"Well, way too dramatic in a day huh?." A voice came from his earpieces. "You saw the whole thing right? " He asked his dear sister who stayed on the ship and observed everything. "Yeap, looks like you got yourself into another trouble. You sure had the physique involving abnormal incidents." Kotori jokes. "Right…" Shido replied with a bitter laugh. Kotori worried about her brother and spoke again, "Look. How about calling this a day? We will further discuss more tomorrow morning. You might want to take a break in the morning." Shido nodded and disappeared on the scene by teleporting.

"What should we do, Commander?" A man with long blonde hair, wearing white military formal uniform asked, standing at Kotori side. "Try to find out that boy really is. I want to know more about him." He pointed at the screen where it replayed the white-haired boy fighting demons. The man bowed gently and left. Kotori pulled out the lollipop and let out a sigh. "Well, well. First Spirit. Now demons. Ain't this city a little more lively than usual." She complained and kept watching the replay.


	4. Chapter 3

**Fortuna City**

"Big brother, there's someone who wants to meet you" A little boy walked to the kitchen and called someone. A man with white hair turned his head around and saw his hand pointing at the front door. He was currently placing the plates on the table to prepare the dinner. After he heard the child, he put down the last plate and walked to the front door. He wore a red T-shirt and brown trousers. He opened the door and saw a middle-age man. He wore black coat, brown pants and fedora.

"Yo, it's been a while. Nero" he spoke as he took off his hat. He gave him a polite smile and nodded his head as greetings.

"Morrison?" Nero replied surprisingly. Morrison - the broker used to give many jobs to Dante. But now, Dante has been gone for about months. This is the first time he saw Morrison come to his place for the first time.

"Yep, the only one." He walked to the sofa and sat on it. Nero also did the same thing and sat on the opposite side.

"What brings you here, Morrison?" Nero asked with curiosity.

"Job. Of course. The client's a big one." The reply from Morrison made Nero curious. After the invasion of demons a few months ago, there's barely any demon hunting jobs.

"Big one? You mean someone like the CEO or rich guy?" Nero joked.

"You can say that. He chuckled and snapped his finger. "Meet your new client." The front door opened. A woman and a man in a wheelchair came in. The woman has blonde short hair, wearing glasses, and formal black suit. As for the man who looks 50, he also wore glasses and shared the same hair color but was less colorful than her. From Nero's sight, he was a harmless old man. At least this is what he wished for.

"Well then, I will leave the rest to you." He stood up and nodded again. He then put on his hat and left the house to let Nero handle the business.

"So, may I know what's your name and the job?" The white hair devil hunter spoke while lying on the sofa and lifted his left foot on his right leg.

"Good evening, Mr Nero. My name is Elliot Baldwin Woodman. And she is my secretary - Karen Nora Mathers. We are from an organization called Asgard Electronics. Ever heard of it?" He introduced himself and his secretary politely.

"Not in my knowledge. What's your request?" He scratched his right chin and let the client talk about the job since this is the only thing he cared about.

"Demon, of course. We sensed an unknown threat was about to rise and we need your help. Mr Nero." He smiled at Nero and continued. "After all, you are recommended by Dante."

"You know Dante!?" Nero widened his eyes when he heard Dante's name. He quickly changed into a serious mode and raised from the sofa.

Dante - the son of legendary dark knight Sparda. The strongest devil hunter. The man who was able to seal off the demon king Mundus, the demon conqueror Aragnox, and also defeated Urizen a few months ago. But he also went missing after Urizen defeated. Not many people knew where he went and when he would return.

"Yes. We have a short history between us." He spoked. Nero was curious again. Guess Dante always sticked up with interesting people. He co

"So, what kind of threat am I facing?"

"Demon. Of course. But, we have yet to know much more. The only thing we can ensure is, this is definitely not a simple task. We need experts like you." Elliot pointed at Nero as he insisted on the devil hunter's help.

"Would you help us? Mr Nero?" After hearing Elliot's request, Nero was in deep thinking. He finally got a job that is a good thing. But on the other hand, the client never mentions any other info than the demon. But he again rewind Dante's word.

That is why we both go! You let you handle this side, capice?

"Just call me Nero. I'm not getting used to being so formal." Nero stood up and reached out his right hand.

"Great. Then, you should prepare yourself because it will be a long trip." Elliot also reached out his hand and shook.

"A long trip?" Nero questioned about the trip he mentioned. The woman beside Elliot passed him a piece of paper. He took it and read the text on it. It is a flight ticket. The ticket said from Fortuna City to Tengu City. The departure time is tomorrow morning.

"Wait!? Tengu City!? In Japan!?" Nero widened his eyes. He knew this would be a long trip to attend the business. But this is the first time he traveled far way from his home.

"Don't worry. We will cover your expenses over there. As for the language barrier, we will provide you something. Once it is over, you'll get your full payment." Karen explained calmly to solve Nero confusion and nervousness.

"That's not the point!" He yelled.

Before he can speak his mind. The ticket on his hand was grabbed by someone. A girl with a fuzzy ponytail hairstyle and wore glasses, white top tank and short jeans.

"Ohhh… what is this?" She asked.

"Nico!?" Nero looked at the girl named Nico with a surprised look. He was quickly interrupted by her loud voice again.

"A trip to Japan! Hell yeah! I always have a dream of going there. Osaka, Tokyo, Shinjuku, Hakudo. These places are always on the top of my travel list." Nero tried to take back the ticket but Nico ran around and dodged the devil hunter's grab.

Elliot chuckled as he watched those two messing around like brother and sister. The assistant beside him remained her poker face.

"This is…" he asked for the hype up lady's name. Nico returned back the ticket to Nero and walked towards the man on wheelchairs.

"Name's Nicolette Goldstein. Currently working under this rough guy here."

"Goldstein?" He held his chin and recalled the name. "Perhaps you are the relative of Nell Goldstein?"

"Yeap. That's my grandma. She is the best gunsmith in the world." She was excited while sharing her grandmother's legacy. Elliot simply smiled and listened to the young lady's words. It was until Nero made a cough to stop Nico's speech.

"Ahem…can we get into the point already?" He coughed to get their attention. Nico dropped her excitement but her facial expression couldn't hide her current emotion. Nero looked at Elliot and handed over the flight ticket.

"I'm sorry, Mr Elliot. I'm afraid you had to hire others..." He tried to reject the job offer nicely. He was glad Dante recommended him as his alternative option. But, the place is way too far and even unfamiliar to him. Plus, he wanted to spend more time with Kyrie and the kids from orphans.

Instead of taking back the ticket, the assistant pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and passed to Nero. Nero took over the paper and widened his eyes.

"Holy…!" his shout quickly got Nico's attention. "Yo yo yo. What happened?" She looked at the paper which Nero currently holding it and she also let out a shout just like Nero. What they are looking at is a check which has a lot of figures on it.

"1,2,3,4…." Nico counted the figures on the cheque. Nero widened both of his eyes and mouth after seeing the unbelieve numbers on it.

"This is…" Nero asked with shock. He needed to confirm that his client doesn't miswrite extra numbers.

"This is your final payment after the job." He spoke.

The room went silent at the moment. Nero had yet to recover from the shock just now. With this money, not only he can use it to buy enough supplies for orphans, and he can rebuilted a better home for him and Kyrie. If Dante is in his position, he definitely will take this gig without hesitation.

After a moment of silence, he let out a sigh. "Well. Looks like you guys got yourself a deal."

Elliot smirked as his aggressive plan worked.

"Your journey will start next week. After you arrive at Tengu City, our branch over there will assist you." Karen described expressionlessly to Nero.

"..." He walked backwards and sat back on the sofa with an irritable look. After a deep consideration, he nodded his head and let out a sigh. "Well. Guess I can't refuse after you guys pay that much."

"Thank you, Mr Nero. We are looking forward to your action." Elliot smiled and gave his gratitude after hearing Nero accept his request.

"Have a good night, both of you." Karen opened the front door and gently pushed the old man on the wheelchair, leaving the place.

"Yo! Remember to share some cuts for me after this. You know, research fee, repair fee and salary" Nico smirked and stared at the cheque on his hand. Nero rolled his eyes.

"Man. I'm jealous of you. You get a trip to Japan. For free to be precious." Nico seems a little let down since she can only see Nero going there alone.

Nero was annoyed by Nico's complaint but he suddenly felt something weird behind the ticket. He checked on it and found out there's another ticket on it. Nero widened his eyes after seeing another ticket on his hand. Nico started turning from disappointing to cheerful after seeing it.

**Somewhere in the car**

"I'm sorry for questioning your decision. But are you sure you want to let the outsider handle this case?" Both of them were discussing while Karen was driving and Elliot sat at the back of the seat.

"Yes. Even we have the latest combat technology and intel team against DEM. But I'm afraid they were into something far beyond our knowledge and expectation." He explained and faced the window, looking at the outside view.

"Demon" She mumbled and looked at Elliot from the rear mirror. She quickly understood what his supervisor tried to say. "Did you mean that DEM are..." Before she could finish, Elliot cut in.

"Quite possible. Our intelligence team has reported that people from DEM appeared in Red Grave City a few months ago. It was the exact same time of that incident."

"The Qliphoth Tree…" she mumbled again.

"There will be a war against DEM soon. Karen, we must prepare everything we can to combat them." He spoke with serious expression.

"..." Karen kept her silent. Elliot can see her in

"I know what you are thinking. You don't want to fight against your sister. Right?"

"No… I will fight for your sake." She recovered from her downed emotion.

"Don't overdo it yourself." He advised her kindly.

"Same as you, Elliot." She replied.

Itsuka Resident

Kotori walked to the balcony and accepted the call from her phone. She picked up and a man's voice can be heard.

"Good evening, Commander. Sorry to interrupt your dinner." The second in command of Ratas

"What is it, Kannazuki?"

"We had a report about Ren Yato. Even though it's just the tip of the iceberg. But I think I should report it to you."

"So, how's it going?"

"Ren Yato, Male, Age 16, student of Raizen High School, currently living alone in his rented apartment."

"Ahmmm..."

"He secretly worked as a freelance mercenary."

"Mercenary!?" Kotori was shocked after learning the identity of his dear brother's friend.

Mercenaries - bunch of outlaws whose working for anyone as long as the pay is good. They are willing to do anything - killing, abducted, bodyguard, spies, any dirty job.

"Even though he is a mercenary. But he seems to be focusing on jobs with specific conditions."

"That is…"

"Demon hunting…"

"..."

Demon, another creature came from another dimension just like Spirit. But different from Spirit, demons are more deadly than Spirit. They are unable to communicate or reasoning. They took human blood as their energy resources. But demons barely appeared in the real world since it required some specific spells to summon them.

"Also, he usually takes the job from a cafe called Shadow."

"Cafe?"

"It's a cafe run by a man. Many people refer to him as Chief but not much knew his real name or identity. He's also the one who gave those jobs to Mr. Ren."

"Any details on him?"

"We are working on it. So, what should we do?"

"Try not to hit the snake first. Monitor them and try to pull out more details. We need to fully sure they are threats or not."

"Roger. We will do our best. One more thing, Commander."

"We also monitored DEM movement and something caught my attention."

"What is it?" She questioned

"I will make a briefing tomorrow. For now, enjoy your evening." He hung up. Kotori put her phone back in her pocket and looked at the sky, having many things happen in a month. She needs to calm herself and arrange incidents. But a voice came into her mind and interrupted.

"Kotori? Are you not joining us?" Shido asked Kotori to join the dinner.

"Coming." She replied cheerfully.

"The drama train never ceases." She mumbled to herself and walked inside the house, joining the dinner.

**Somewhere**

"I… will … not …" a voice mumbled.

"How was it?" A mystery voice spoked. He was unable to look or think. For more specific, he can't even move his body at his own will. All he can do is listen to mystery voices talking to each other in the background.

"Subject seems to be cut into pieces. The body was unable to recover anymore. The man who did this surely knew how to kill."

"Cut…pieces…" He thought as he cannot remember what was happening to him or thinking.

"Luckily the brain was in one pieces, we can use it to proceed our experiment."

"Experiment…"

"Good. Put it to sleep." He can hear someone was taking out something and walked towards him. He felt a sensation from somewhere. The sensitivity from it was too weak and barely to notice. But he could feel an injection injected to him. After the injection, he began to feel tired and his mind was barely awake. Before he went unconscious, he heard that voice spoke something.

"Prepare the container!" A man shouted.


	5. Chapter 4

"Again."

"Again."

"Again!"

A man with black medium-long hair and a fuzzy beard who wore black T-shirt and brown pants was carrying a bamboo sword at his right. He watched a young boy lying on the ground and exhausted. His whole body was full of mess and scratch.

"What is it? Tired?" The black hair man spoke. He swung his sword at his back and glaring at the boy.

"Come on, get up. If you are down easily, don't talk about killing demons. You can't even fight them." He spoke angrily. Tried to motivate the boy a little.

The young boy moved his finger and placed his right palm on the floor. He slowly raised up and caught his breath. After some breath adjustment, he walked towards his bamboo sword and picked up.

"Now, that's the spirit." The man spoke happily after seeing him. The young boy raised his sword and went into pre combat mode. The man also swung his sword to the front and shouted.

"Show me what you got, Ren!"

Present

"Urghh…" Ren yawned while walking to school. He was a little tired since the fighting scene yesterday. Not only met some other living existence besides demon. The worst part is, his classmate saw the whole thing. It's gonna be hard to explain. He used his walking time to think about an excuse to cover this, a really good excuse.

After reaching the school, he still didn't come up with any good excuse. He sighed in front of the school gate and walked into the school.

"Let's hope Itsuka can forget about…" he thought. A voice shouted at him.

"Yo!" A male voice shouted. He gave a "well shit" expression after knowing who's calling him. He turned around and saw the person he expected, Itsuka Shido.

"Morning, Itsuka. Look, about yesterday…" he spoke slowly. He noticed that Shido was looking weird today. Guess this is what they called finding out your dirty little secret. Shido quickly walked towards him and his face was too close to him. He was shocked that Shido was way agressive today. Way way too aggressive. He can almost hear his breathing. The acting quickly got the student attention nearby.

"Hey, look at them."

"Oh my god, so the rumor is true."

"Is this so called confession?"

"Look at Ren. He seems calm about this. "

"Don't tell me he's also..."

The whisper around him annoyed him much. He needs to stop this before they can spread more rumors.

"Yo, Itsuka. What's up with you?" He spoke calmly. After the few seconds of stare from Shido, he opened his mouth and started to talk.

"Ren, you actually look handsome." He spoke. The words from him makes him even more question mark on his head.

Is this some late April fool jokes? He thought

"What are you saying?" He asked. Shido immediately pulled his right hand and knocked him on the wall.

"What the hell…!?" He shouted as he was lying on the wall and facing his blue hair classmate.

"Oh my…"

"He's actually doing it…"

"In public…"

More students gathered around and whispered. Some of them took out their phone to get the scene. Some of the girls were starting to get excited due to their fantasy appearing in front.

"Oioioioioi… for real…" he mumbled. He cannot believe what he witnessed right now. Shido kept his silence and stared at him continuously.

"Look, about yesterday…" he tried to explain but he felt his lip was touched and saw Shido's finger put his finger on it.

"Shhh… I know." He spoke generously, smiling at him. But the smile gave Ren a chilly feeling. He felt like today's Shido is not his usual. Before he can conclude, Shido spoke something unexpected.

"Actually, I fell in love with you long ago." He spoke while keeping his smile.

The words from him are bringing crowds wild and Ren almost choked and coughed.

"Wait… what… cough…." For the second time, he didn't believe what he heard just now. Not only his classmate acting weird, but also the speaking manner.

Okay, is this what they called a prank show! He thought inside. But before he can spoke, he sensed something weird.

_Wait. This was familiar_. He thought. He sensed energy came from his classmate in front of him. The energy was way familiar. Before he can conclude, another voice shouted from another side.

"There you are! You Pervert!" A woman shouted at him. Followed by other girls . It is Ai, Mai and Mii. They looked pissed while shouting at Shido.

Shido quickly let out a disappointing voice and ran to the opposite of girls. The girls also rushed towards Shido and passed through the white hair student.

After sawing them running further, Ren left the side wall and looked at his surroundings. The students were still discussing the incident just now and whispered to each other.

"What the hell is happening..." He mumbled while stood still and processing what was happening.

**In class**

The teacher was teaching in the class. Every student was focusing on the lecture except a student sat behind the right corner. He looked at the windows at his right side, spinning the pencil and thinking. After what happened this morning, he can't really focus in the class.

Man, this is getting weird today." He looked away and scratched his head. But he felt someone was watching him. He looked to the left side and saw one girl caught his interest - Tobiichi Origami. She looked away after being spotted by him. The stare quickly gave him an uncomfortable feeling.

"I wish the class could finish quicker." He complained and decided to do his own stuff instead of listening to the class.

**Afternoon break**

"Finally…" he stood up and planned to go to the cafeteria, buying something to eat . He was stopped by someone behind him. He turned around and saw what he was already guessing.

"Yato Ren." She called him emotionless. She walked past him and whispered beside Ren.

"Let's go somewhere to talk." Her request surprised him since she doesn't get along with people other than Shido. She left the classroom and didn't speak another word. But she looked at Ren and expected him to follow. Ren saw there's no choice but to follow her. They walked away from the classroom and went on the floor.

Ren followed behind her without saying a word. He was confused about why a girl suddenly called him. Especially the most perfect student in the school. Once they arrived at the door of the rooftop, Origami stopped her steps and faced Ren.

"So… what do you want to talk about?" Ren asked impatiently. But the girl remains silent and looked down.

"Hello…?" He raised the tone to get Origami attention since he didn't want to miss the break time. Finally, she raised up her face and moved her mouth.

"What are you, Yato Ren?" The question was asked by her giving confusion to the white hair student. He frowned and crossed his arms on the chest.

"What do you mean…" Before he could speak his mind, Origami threw a sharp military knife athim. Ren widened his eyes and dodged the throwing object. He then glared at Origami angrily.

"What the hell!? Is this how you greet your classmate?" He spoke angrily.

"What's your intention to get close to Shido?" She asked again.

"Excuse me!?" Not only his classmate called him for no reason, but she also tried to kill him too. He didn't want to alert people or even get into fights in the school.

"Well, I only knew him when his cousin was in trouble. That's it." He spoke honestly. But the answer seems didn't satisfy the perfect student.

"I heard you worked as a mercenary, am I correct?" The words from Origami brought Ren into shock.

_How the hell is she knew_. He thought. There's not much people know about his real identity but Chief and the other mercenaries.

"So what if I am?" He didn't deny the fact of him as a mercenary and went into cautious. Origami still had her poker face and walked down the stairs. She gave him a stare and walked closer to him. But Ren didn't hold back and tried to resolve the misunderstanding of him.

"Look, I know you and Shido have some 'special relationship' and it is the right way to protect your precios." He continued. "I might be a mercenary. But I have no interest in harming Itsuka-kun". But the explanation from him still doesn't earn Origami trust. Before she left, she threw out a warning.

"Stay away from Shido. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a second warning like this." She walked past him, grabbed the knife on the floor and left the scene. Leaving white hair boy standing alone and scratched his head.

"This is getting better and better, again…" He also moved to the cafeteria quickly since he had only a few minutes left until the next class.

**Before the class**

Ren was walking on his way to class after the meal. Suddenly, he heard a screaming voice behind him. He turned around and saw a student was running towards him. He widened his eyes because he knew that student - Itsuka Shido. He seemed troubled and ran away from other people behind him.

"Sorry! Move out the way!" He screamed while running on the hallway. Ren simply moved aside and gave a path to Shido for running.

"Stop right there, you criminal."

"Stop running away!"

"Hey, I'm not done with you!"

He spotted most of the girls chasing after Shido with their angry expression on them. Ren didn't understand what was happening but he felt like this Shido was kinda different back in the morning. He followed behind the girls and tried to catch up to Shido.

While he was chasing after the girls, he noticed something odd happening. He felt a weird energy coming from his upper.

"This feeling…. don't tell me…" He felt this energy was familiar. He quickly ran to the top and reached the rooftop. He opened the door and widened his eyes. He saw Yatogami Tohka and Tobiichi Origami facing Shido. Correction, two Shido.

"Yato!" Shido spoke after seeing Ren appear at the door. Ren was rubbing his eyes to make sure he didn't witness some sort of imagination. But his eyes are normal, there's two Shido appearing in front of him at the same time.

"Don't be a fool by him. He is the fake." Shido A shouted and pointed at Shido B beside him.

"No! I'm the real one. Please believe me." He also tried to persuade them he is the real him.

The girls looked at each other and their minds were made. They pointed at Shido A and shouted.

"You are the fake one!" Shido A shocked and tightened his lips. He looked at Ren and spoke.

"Yato-kun. Please help me! I'm the real one. The real Shido!" Ren approached them and glaring at Shido A.

"Yo…, what's the matter? Yato. Don't you recognize your classmate? It's me. Itsuka Shido" He spoke nervously.

Ren let out a sigh and faced Shido. "Next time, if you want to disguise yourself, try to fake your atmosphere, Miss Spirit.

"Huh!?" The words came from Ren quickly getting Shido's nerves. He walked back and the long hair in front covered his eyes.

"Why…" 'Shido' mumbled. "Why why why why! My disguise was supposed to be perfect. Why are you guys able to see through it!?" He shouted and the whole body started surrounded by light. He turned into a young lady with a Witch costume - Natsumi. Her face was full of hatred and furious.

"You two are look the same, but I can smell the difference." Tohka explained.

"If you disguised Shido and was alone, I might not be able to identify. But if you compared it, your speed of blink of eyes was slightly faster, the height was 0.003 cm differences." Origami explained.

"Are they some kind of animals?" Ren thought sarcastically.

The explanation triggered much of the Spirit. She summoned her broom and rode on it.

"Not only you see my identity once. But, twice!" She threw a declaration before leaving.

"I will make sure all of you regret your life after what you have done!"

She flew away and vanished in their sight. Shido was able to join them after Natsumi left.

"You all right, Shido?" Tohka and Origami asked together about Shido's condition. But it didn't end up well due to both of the girls starting glaring at each other and argued. But it gave Shido a relief and a wry smile. He saw Ren was about to leave and quickly approached him.

"Hey, Yato." Ren turned around and saw Shido give him a bow.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you this morning. And also thanks for the help just now." He spoke formally. Ren shook his head and spoke, "Nah, it's nothing." Ren opened the door but again was stopped by Shido.

"Yato, about last night…" he spoke. Ren knew this coming but he was not ready yet to tell Shido about his identity. He ignored Shido and proceeded to leave the rooftop. Leaving Shido standing alone.

His phone rang and he took it out and saw his sister's name on the screen.

"Shido, are you alright?" Kotori spoke.

"Kotori!? I just encountered Natsumi…" Shido told Kotori what was happening just now but Kotori didn't bother to listen.

"I know. Look, there's something important I need to talk to you. Hurry up and come back home after you finish school."

"Okay…" the other side hung up. He kept his phone in his pocket and looked at the sky. Joining Tohka and Origami to stop their argument.

**Evening - Itsuka Resident**

Three people sat at the table of the kitchen. Kotori, Reine, and Shido were gathering together to discuss the photos on the table.

"These are…" Shido spoke with curiosity. Kotori looked at Reine and the tired consultant explained, "We found these photos at the mailbox before you went back home. There's only your name on the letter. But we can guess it's Witch doing."

"Natsumi?" he spoke surprisely. He picked up a letter attached with photos and looked at the back. The name Natsumi was clearly written at the corner. He looked at the photos and quickly recognized them. These are Shido's close people. Judged from the photo quality, the photo was taken from somewhere without their knowing. The people in the photo didn't even look at the camera. Only Origami and Ren noticed someone was taking a photo of them and looked at the camera shot.

"What's the meaning of this?" Shido wanted to know what's her intention in taking the photo. Kotori pointed at the letter on his hand. He looked into it and found a written note. He gave it a read.

I'm inside of these photos, can you find me before everyone disappears? Natsumi.

**Shadow cafe**

Chief was checking on the coffee bean stock while the music from the jukebox played in the background. To run a decent coffee shop and serve customers the best coffee, he needs to check the quality and quantity are enough. Suddenly, the doorbell rang and got the Chief attention. He looked at the person who walked into his shop and smiled.

"Well well, welcome." He greeted the customer gently. He then walked to the coffee maker machine to prepare a cup of coffee. While the customer waited for the coffee, she approached the jukebox and spoke, "You still listen to those old music, aren't you?" Chief smirked and placed the coffee on the table.

"It's called classic music, don't you think it's better than the music today." The customer returned to the seat and took a slip of the coffee served by him. The customer enjoyed every taste of it in the mouth.

"Your coffee tastes better every time I visit." The customer gave the compliment for the coffee.

"Thanks. I guess you come in here not only for a cup of coffee right?"

"About the thing I request."

"Oh. That." Understanding what the customer said, he left his spot and went back to the kitchen. The customer continued to enjoy the coffee while waiting for the Chief's return. He returned to the front table carrying a box covered with white cloth on it. He placed it on the table and flipped off the cloth.

"This is the one?" The customer questioned while taking out the item from the box. It's a classic golden stopwatch with fancy design. She examines every detail of it.

"Yep, I guess I don't have to teach you how to use it, right?" He spoke with confidence. The customer smirked and kept the stopwatch, drinking the last sip of coffee. The customer stood up and about to leave the shop.

"Thanks for your coffee and toy. How much am I supposed to pay?"

"Nah. This one is in the house."

"How sweet you always." She was impressed by the free coffee and stopwatch she got. She bowed elegantly and opened the door. Before she left, Chief spoke in his caring tone.

"Try not to involve some dangerous stuff this time."

"Kuh...kuh..kuh. You know I always loved dangerous stuff." She smirked and left the shop. Chief shook his head and let out a worried sigh.

"Okay, back to work." He walked back to the kitchen to continue his work.


	6. Chapter 5

**Shadow Cafe - Evening**

"A new job?" Ren asked while eating pancakes with sweet syrup and butter as topping.

"Yep. The client demands a professional. Especially into demon hunting." Chief explained while enjoying his own coffee.

"So, what's this job about?" He asked excitedly.

"Slow down there, cowboy." Chief tried to calm the white hair boy's excitement before he could speak the job details. The white hair noticed his rudeness and returned to his seat.

"Listen here. The job is treasure hunting." The words came from Chief surprised Ren.

"Treasure hunting? Don't tell me the client is some child who hid away their toys, drew a map and expected someone to find it out?" He questioned with a bitter smile.

"Well, that kid is right in front of you." Chief joked and pointed at himself. Ren almost choked while hearing the client was Chief himself.

"For real!?" He shouted.

"Easy there. I'm not done talking." Chief continued to describe the details.

"That treasure was about rare materials. But it was kept in a military base under heavy security protection." He spoke calmly.

"So you telling me that the job is sneak into a military base, locate the stuff and steal it?"

"Yep, simple right?" Chief smiled.

"It's easy coming from your mouth." He frowned after hearing the job details.

"What? All these years you had been trained for nothing?"

"Alright alright! I'll take it. But this gotta be a good payment after this."

"Don't worry. I am the man of my words."

"Where's the location?"

"Alright. The location is…" Chief pulled out the map and gave it to him. Ren looked at the map and immediately smirked after seeing where the treasure was located.

"You sure know how to level up a challenge, don't you?" He spoke and stared at Chief.

Chief also returned with a smirk.

* * *

**DEM branch - basement**

"Escorting the asset." A man used the radio while instructing the crane to move the cargo to the cargo area. The moving cargo was shining white and yellow stripping.

"What's in this cargo?" A worker asked curiously.

"Don't know, the top said it's some kind of rare material. What's it called again?" Another worker scratched his chin and tried to recall the name of the material.

"Hey! You two! Stop sacking around and get back to work!" A man who seemed to be their supervisor shouted at them to go back to their section. The workers gave him a salute and returned to their post.

"Asset secured." The supervisor reported.

**Outside of the branch**

"Man, didn't think of me as a thief and breaking into someone's property one day."

Ren looked at the main entrance of the base using the binoculars, expecting to find a way to enter the base. He noticed that those guards aren't the ordinary guards. They got some serious technology stuff. It is a suicide mission if someone tried to break in at the front.

"The security ain't joking. Guards are fully-armed, surveillance cameras, unnamed drones." He mumbled and thought he might need to plan his infiltration carefully. Then, he spotted a hidden path with low light. The entrance still had someone in guards. But compared to the main entrance, the security was less-tightened.

"Guess that's my entry path." He put back the binoculars into his backpack and jumped down the edge of the hills.

**Side entrance**

Two guards were standing on their position with their rifle on. One of them was yawning due to bored of guarding the place. Suddenly, the surveillance camera behind was destroyed by a throwing object.

"Huh?" The noise quickly alert one of the guards.

"What's wrong?" The other guard noticed his partner acted cautious and approached him. Before he could contact him, he was knocked down by a man from above.

"What the … hey!" The only guard looked at his downed partner and saw a man with black combat suit stood in front of him, facing behind. The man kicked the sand on the ground to blind the sight of the guard.

"Aughh!" The guard was unable to see the attacker's face clearly due to the disruption of sand. He was knocked out by a punch on his stomach before he could react. The low light exposed the attacker's face - Ren.

"Don't mind me." Ren picked up the keycard from the unconscious guard and scanned the panel, unlocking the locked door.

**Cargo area**

He dodged every guard and multiple surveillance camera and finally reached his destination - the cargo section where DEM kept their assets.

"Well, that was easy." He was expecting more guards inside but turned out it was lesser than he imagined. But that helped him to get to the destination more easily.

This place is sure massive as hell. If he checked on each cargo one by one, he would definitely be spotted before he found it. He took out a detector given by Chief. He said this will help him to identify the material more easily. The stronger the beep from it, the higher the chance the material might be contained.

Ren walked passed every area of cargo, finding the material and also not to forget to get past guards on duty. He kept walking until the beep became louder. He stopped and watched as the detector reacted from the white cargo.

Ren checked the entrance of the cargo but it was locked by the digital lock pad.

"Great. Technology stuff." He sighed while looking at the lock pad. It had a number pad and biometric scan for the cargo. If this cargo was guarded by high tech stuff, pretty sure the person didn't want others to see what's inside.

But the main problem, how to unlock it, asked other guards to unlock? Guess the password randomly? Or a better solution…

He slightly charged his power gloves and smacked the lock pad. The lock pad lost its functionality and the cargo door was unlocked and open slowly.

"When in doubt, just smack it." He mumbled with a smile. He took out the detector again and continued to find the material. The detector was getting louder and louder when he was close to a protected supply box. Ren opened the box carefully and spotted a massive rock inside it.

"Let's see. Silver and rough surface. Check. Solid. Check. Glowing linear. Check. And Jackpot." He compared the description of material also given by Chief until all of them are matched.

"Now how am I supposed to carry it much?" He scratched his head and wondered how to carry such an obvious and huge object out of this top secret place without being spotted. He then recalled what the Chief said to him.

_No need to carry many. Just a portion of it will do._

"A portion?" He was curious , carried part of the material. Ren was stunned by its weight. The material was lighter than he was expected. He planned to carry more and put them into his prepared briefcase. Once he finished up, he closed the cargo door and about to leave this place before someone spotted him.

"Well, gotta get out here before someone..."

"Warning! Intruder alert!"

Just about ready to leave, the alarms rang loudly and everything turned into red. The alarms quickly attract guards' attention. The footstep was near to his position and he spotted the entrance was about to close.

"Me and my god damn mouth..." he complained.

Ren held the briefcase and rushed towards the entrance, ignoring any guards who spotted him.

"Hey! Stop right there!" The guards shooted at Ren using their rifle but Ren used the other cargo as the obstacle to hide away from the hit.

"Send backups! There's another intruder attacking us." A loud broadcast came from nowhere requested for backups. Ren heard it and thought curiously, "There's another intruder beside me?" But there's no time to think more about it. If he didn't run quickly, the door would shut down and nowhere to escape. As for the consequences of caught stealing, let's just say the result is unimaginable.

Luckily Ren did some parkour during his past training. Thus, it's easy for him to pass through other cargos in front of him. He saw he might not be able to make it to the entrance, he took out his sword and threw it at the entrance, the sword expanded, stucked at the entrance and gave him a few gaps to allow him to pass through. But the sword won't hold for long. He slid past the entrance and collected his sword, let out a relaxing breath after seeing the door closed.

"Too close." Wasting no time, he needed to get out here before more guards showed up. Suddenly, he heard an explosion blow up behind him. He looked back and saw a huge unmanned silver robot.

"Great." He wished to fight but there's no time to risk himself in danger. Ren ran towards the exit as fast as he could. The robot spotted the intruder and started its movement. It locked on the target and fired a number of missiles.

"Really!?" He shouted while escaping. Every time the missile was about to land a hit, Ren dodged to the other side and avoided the explosion. Another missile was about to hit him. He smirked and did a backflip. He stood on the missile and rode it as a skateboard to continue his escape.

"Thanks for the ride." He waved at the robot and used the temporary skateboard to dodge any blockade in front of him and the other missiles. The robot seemed unable to defeat his target, the light on its head turned into red, and went into another combat mode. Its hand transformed into a heavy machine gun and aimed at the flying men.

"Oh boy...". Ren noticed the heavy arms on the robot and tried to avoid the firing bullets by doing snake movement. Unfortunately, few bullets hit on his riding missiles. Ren lost his balance and the missile started around until it hit on the ground, a loud explosion occurred.

The robot ceases its movement and scans the environment. The fire by the explosion glowed faster and the robot was unable to identify the target with a heat sensor. It turned off the heat sensor and switched to normal sight.

"Cough...cough…, I'm gonna tell that old man to raise the cut after this." A man coughed and walked out behind the cracked wall and cleaned up the mess on his cloth. Ren checked the briefcase was still in one piece and placed on the ground. He took out his sword and taunted at the robot.

"You want it? Come and get it!" The robot rushed towards Ren and crushed him with its right foot. But Ren was faster, he jumped up and left a few cuts on its armor. The robot continued to attack with its left hand. Ren parried the attack and used its right knee as the step to hop higher. He ran on its right arm and slashed the protection armor on it. The robot swinged its right arm to get rid of the man on it. Ren immediately hopped away and landed on the ground. The robot was about to smash the intruder with its right hand. Ren saw its right arm was widely open and charged up his power gloves. Just about the incoming attack was about to land on him, he released the charge and swung his sword.

"SLASH"

The right arm was cut off completely and fell on the ground. The robot laid back after the hit and it fired every missile and machine gun towards Ren. Ren dodged the bullets and missiles, dashing forwards the robot. He jumped forward rapidly and dash towards its right hand, disabling the overheat heavy machine gun with his sword. All the robot's arms are completely destroyed, smoke and spark came from the robot and are unable to move any inch. Ren used this chance to give the heavily damaged robot a final blow. He hopped on its head and jumped backwards, pulling out his dual gun and aimed at the core of the robot.

"Goodnight." He smiled and fired a few shots on the core. The core broke out a leak and the robot exploded on the scene. Ren landed on the ground and kept his guns at the back. He checked the briefcase to make sure the asset was still in good condition.

Ren took up the briefcase and walked away from the explosion scene. Before he left, he heard the mechanical sound behind him. He turned around and widened his eyes in shock.

"Talk about stubbornness..." He saw the leftover part of the robot that was still alive and about to fire some kind of laser from its head. Before he could take out his gun and fire back, he noticed his gun was running out of energy and on cooldown.

"Damn it!" He cursed and pulled out his sword instead. He noticed he might be too late to stop the robot firing but he took the chance, dashing forwards to give it a proper final blow this time.

"..." A shot came from nowhere and temporarily stopped the robot movement. Ren was curious who did that but there's no time to waste. He chopped off the robot head into half and the weapon on it ceased the function.

"Who's there?" He looked at the place where the shot was fired. A girl walked out from the dark slowly. She had unbalanced twintail black hair, unique color on each eye and gorgeous looks. She wore a red and black Gothic Lolita dress, black high boots and holding a classic engraved brown gun. Her most identified part is her right eye. It was goldish with clock design.

Cosplayer here? He thought but he didn't let his guard down. He held tight the sword and stared at her. The cosplayer smirked and spoke out her mind.

"Oh my. Is this how you treat your saviour?"

"Savior? It's you firing that shot just now?" He asked and still held his sword tightly. She might be saving him but he was uncertain it's a friend or foe to him. And that power is able to stop a thing's movement, definitely not just an ordinary human.

"Precisely. Don't worry, I'm not a threat to you. Unless you give me a reason to." She spoke and lowered her gun to show her innocence. Ren felt there's no bad intention from her and put down his sword too.

"Thanks, I supposed." He nodded. The girl in fancy costume smiled and walked towards him. She looked at what Ren was carrying and asked him.

"Looks like you stole something from them."

"Well, they should tighten this place more secure." He continued. "So, are you the people who are called 'Spirit' too?" The words from him got the lady attention and she smiled.

"You know about Spirit huh? Well, I should have guessed you're not merely an intruder who is capable of doing that." She spoke and looked at the destroyed robots and moved around. Ren was quickly annoyed by her movement.

"Oh. Where's my manner? My name is Tokisaki Kurumi. As you can see, I'm a Spirit." She greets herself politely and makes a bow.

"Name's Yato Ren. A mercenary." He introduced plainly. Before they could speak more, noisy sounds interrupted them far away and they both looked at the side. More guards and unmanned drones showed up at distance. Ren looked back and spotted Kurumi was no longer in the scene.

"I will see you soon, Mr mercenary." Her voice echoed. Ren didn't bother much as he shouldn't have wasted more time and quickly escaped this basement.

* * *

**DEM control center**

"God damn it!" A man in beard slammed the table while watching his men unable to catch the intruder. Not only the asset got stolen, but also few of their equipment got destroyed. Most importantly, their trump card. Visage-MK III. The ultimate weapons initially to fight against the Spirit. He thought he could use it as a pre-field test before the official. Now it showed no signal after the explosion occurred just now. He was even angrier and threw away the cup at the other side.

"Cap… captain." One of the staff showed up and reported to the man in fear. The captain gave him an angry stare and shouted.

"What is it!?" The staff was scared by the angry look of the captain. He stuck a bit but managed to report the situation to him.

"We lost the intruders. Visage MK-III was totally destroyed and unable to recover. We tried to use the surveillance camera to rewind and find the look of the intruder. But it was destroyed way before they showed up." The report finally broke down the captain's last defense line of his mind.

"Tell them…" he mumbled first. And then he grabbed the staff sleeves and shouted at him. "I want every fucking men to use evey fucking methods to catch those fucking rats! Or else, I will fucking kill you all! Do you hear me!!!" The staff was terrified by his captain yelling and ran out of the control room.

The captain tried to calm himself down and noticed his control platform. He picked up the call and his attitude was dynamically changed, shocked after seeing the screen on the call. It was no other than Ellen herself.

"I heard part of our asset was stolen. Care to explain?" She spoke in her serious tone. The captain was sweating bullets over her question. If she knew about his mistake, not only his position will be replaced but facing heavy punishment that is worse than death. He needs to come up with something to get this over it.

"Yes… but don't you worry, Ma'am. We have everything under control." He hid away his nervousness and intended to cover all the mess. But Ellen was doubtful about the captain's explanation.

"Is that so? You do know the consequences if you failed right?" She glared at the captain with a fierce look. The captain is even more nervous after hearing the warning from the blonde girl.

"Y...yes, Ma'am. We will let you know once we captured the intruder." Once he made his promise, the communication immediately cut off without saying anything. The captain once again slammed the table again. The entrance of the control opened again and a female staff showed up.

"Captain, we finally get the image of the intruder." She reported the status formally. The captain quickly turned around and shouted, "Who is it!?" The female staff operated some devices on his left arm and an image screen popup. It showed two people but the image is blurry. Their faces were unable to see without any technical process. One is a twin tail hair girl and a white short hair boy with a dark blue suit.

"Unfortunately, we needed time to process the image." She reported. But the captain didn't care much. It is only the matter of time to process the image and identify the intruder. He returned to his commander mode and commanded the female staff.

"Send it to the intel team. Tell them to process the image and identify those people in them. Once it's done, report back to me."

The female staff got the command from her captain and saluted. Once the female staff left, he sat on his chair and put his hands on the table.

"I will make sure they will pay for this." He mumbled angrily.

* * *

**Shadow cafe - Midnight**

The chief opened the briefcase and saw the rough material in it. He let out a smile and spoke happily.

"Nice job. Guess my training effort doesn't go to waste." He smiled and congratulated the young mercenary who sat opposite of him. Ren was exhausted after the job, so he decided to order pepperoni pizza and carbonate drink as his meal. He ate while watching Chief take out the material and observe.

"So, do you mind describing what kind of material I am stealing and getting pursued by a bunch of guards and a massive machine just for that?" He spoke while eating his meal.

"This, my friend. It's called Gilgamesh. A rare material came from the underworld."

"You mean this stuff came from the demon world? Then, how the hell did those guys get it?" He was surprised by the material he stole was the resources came from different realms. Chief continued, "This type of material is not only harder than ordinary steel, it can be used to craft superb weapons."

"Let me guess, you wanted to use it to craft something fancy?" He spoke and stared at Chief. The shop owner smirked and nodded. Ren let out a sigh and finished the last bite of the meal. "Now, about my pay."

"Oh, before that…" He coughed and pointed at Ren's left side of his waist. Ren was curious what Chief wanted until he knew the shop owner pointed at his sword. He took out and placed it on the table.

White Fang, the primary weapon he used when he was officially recruited as a mercenary. It was light-weight, sharp, and easy to keep to avoid attention in public. Now he looked at his sword, the sword itself started getting a little rusty, the shape was bumpy and less shining.

"Well well, would you look at it? You never knew how to treat your love in good care." He sighed and complained the sword owner never took care of this weapon. Ren rolled his eyes after hearing his complaint and questioned, "Cut it out. What do you want with my sword?"

"Isn't that obvious? I'm going to enhance it." The words came from Chief getting Ren curiosity. "You want to… enhance White Fang? Don't tell me you gonna…" Ren knew what Chief wanted to do. Chief shook the rough material on his hand to give out the hint.

"Ding ding! I'm going to use this to enhance." Chief smiled.

"Are you sure this material is fine? No side effects like curse or evil spirit possessed?" He felt unsafe letting the Chief handle the weapon enhancement using unknown material. Especially this kind of stuff straight from underworld. Chief smirked and answered the young mercenary's doubt. "Nah, it should be fine. I'm the expert crafter. Remember?"

Ren still had doubt but if Chief came to crafting, it was no talk on the paper. His crafting skill was astonishing and always satisfied the client requirement. All of his equipment was crafted by Chief himself and worked like a charm in his combat.

"Alright. If you say so. But I still need some cash. I'm out of my budget this week." He complained and insisted of Chief gave him cash to spend. Chief took out the tiny bag below the table and gave it to Ren.

"Deducted from your meal fee and enhancement, here's your pay." Ren grabbed the bag and prepared to leave the shop. He still needs to go to school tomorrow. Before he left, he had one doubt in his mind and probably Chief was able to answer it.

"Chief, one question. Do you know about 'Spirit'?" Chief shook his head and answered, "Never heard of it. What's that? Some kind of new trend?" Ren felt disappointed after hearing the shop owner's answer. He continued, "Then, do you know a girl called Tokisaki Kurumi?" This time, Chief immediately changed his expression after hearing the name. Ren was thinking he might hit the jackpot, but was disappointed again after hearing the answer. "Sorry, I knew too many girls. Can't recall which's who." He joked. Ren let out a bitter laugh and left the shop.

"Man, this is going to be awkward…" Chief scratched his head and let out a depressed sigh. He went to the front door and changed the door sign to CLOSE. "Time for overnight work."

Ren walked on his way home. Suddenly, his phone rang to interrupt his enjoyment of music. He picked up and saw his classmate - Shido Itsuka on the screen.

"Hello. Ren Yato speaking." He answered the call.

"Ah. Yato-kun. Sorry to call you at this time." Shido spoke from the other side.

"Don't be. What's your business?"

"Err… I know it's all sudden. But do you have any free time tomorrow evening?"

Ren was surprised his classmate called him for the first time. He has never been called out by others. Although he prefers to be alone, there's a first time for everything.

"Yes. I'm free tomorrow. Trying to call me out for a date?" He replied.

"Well… something like that. I also invited Tonomachi out too. You in?"

"Hmm…" Ren was currently thinking should he accept or refuse. But after all those jobs and bizarre incidents, he sure needed some time to relax. He rather enjoy himself alone but hanging out with classmates isn't a bad idea either.

"I'm in. So, where to meet tomorrow?" He agreed to Shido's invitation.

"I'm glad you agreed. I will tell you tomorrow. Have a good night, Yato."

"A date, huh?" He hung up the call and put back the phone in his pocket, continuing his way home. Just before he could listen to his music again, he sensed someone was watching him.

"What the…" he turned around but found not a single individual on the road. He checked the sky and also found not a single thing spotted either. To be honest, this is not the first time he sensed someone watched him. Back at the school today, he also got the same feeling after school.

"Whatever… probably my imagination." He ignored that feeling and fastened his walking. At the unknown side, a girl with a purple transparent tight suit watching the white hair boy walking. He smirked and mumbled, "Fuh… you shall be my next victim."


	7. Chapter 6

P/S: Sorry for the wait. I had some private business to take care in my personal life and had to delay the new chapter release. Also, some previous chapters will be updated due to rework on my OC character. I hope you all enjoy this new chapter.

* * *

**Fortuna**

"I guess that's everything I need." Nero was packing all his stuff into the luggage. Not sure the supplies are enough to cover his 'business trip' but clients said they will cover their expenses over there, so he might just buy what's left over there. A woman walked into the room. The girl has side ponytail hair to her right shoulder. She was wearing a pure white skirt with a plain belt over her waist. It was none other than Nero's girlfriend - Kyrie.

"Nero." She spoke softly, looking at Nero who was just finishing his luggage packing before leaving Fortuna tomorrow. Nero turned around and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Don't worry. I will be fine. Plus, the money in advance should be able to help those kids. After the job, we should be able to build a larger house for the kids and supplies for them too." Kyrie smiled and looked at him.

"Be safe on your trip, Nero. I was worried that you will hardly fit in over there. This is your second time leaving far from home." Kyrie gave a sad look and worried about Nero. Nero hugged her and kissed on her forehead. Suddenly, he heard the front door knock loudly.

Nero was annoyed by the continuous knock and walked fast to the front door. He opened and saw a middle aged man catching his breath. Judging from his look, he might be running towards here.

"Nero!" He shouted at Nero and tried to recover his breath.

"What is it?" Nero asked. The man slowly regained his breath and stood still. His face was full of fear and seemed like something bad was happening.

"The… the town was under attack by demons!" He once shouted again. Nero widened his eyes when he heard the words 'demon'. He quickly walked to the back of the house. After a while, he came back with a sword - Red Queen and gun - Blue Rose.

"Lead the way." Nero walked out the house and asked for the man to lead him to demons.

"This way!" The man also spent no waste of time, quickly running towards the direction of demons and Nero followed his path.

"Arghhh…" Another man equipped with a normal sword fell on the ground. He was injured and a line of cut can be seen on his chest. He worked with others, trying to buy the local citizens some times to evacuate but the number demons are incredibly outnumber theirs. Most of his comrades had either been unconscious or sacrificed. He looked at the demon slowly approaching him. The demon was wearing a grey hood and holding a scythe. Their whole body is almost skeleton.

**Hell Caina**

"Damn it…" He saw there was no chance of escaping and accepted his fate. He closed his eyes as the demon dashed towards and raised its scythe. He expected it would be a quick blow to his death. But instead, a clang sound can be heard. He opened his eyes and saw a white hair young man parrying the scythe using his unique sword.

"Nero!?" He quickly recognised the man who just saved him. Nero stared at the demon fiercely and put more force on his blade. He revved up the sword and broke the demon's scythe. He wasted no time engaged with the second swing of his blade. The demon was cut into half.

"Go! Get out of here. I got this." Nero looked at the injured man who was stunned by Nero's fight. He slowly stood up, embracing his pain and helped his other man. The man who called Nero just now also showed up and helped him to save the unconscious fighter.

Nero saw the demon tried to interrupt but was stopped by Nero. He swung his sword and blocked the path. He then looked at demons with a smirk.

"Let's get this over with." Demons charging towards him, so does Nero. He revved up his sword again and forming flames on his sword. The demon was either burned or cut into pieces. Few demons tried to attack from behind. Nero took out his gun and fired at them. One of them swung his weapon towards Nero. The devil hunter laid backwards, dodging the scythe. The other demon also tried to attack him with lower attack. Just about it will hit the devil hunter. The scythe was suddenly stopped by unknown force. The demon tried to swing the weapon on its hand but it cannot swing back or control by its own will. Nero kicked the first demon away and stood slowly. The other demon was confused and slowly raised up by an unknown force. Nero let out a battle roar and the demon was thrown to his demon group. The demons barely understood what was happening until they saw an abnormal on Nero. The devil hunter cracked his fists and a pair of blue and barely visible demonic arms at his back.

"Round 2" He shouted and ran towards the demon.

With the help of Nero, the number of demons decreased quickly. Some of them tried to escape but Nero didn't give them a chance. He grabbed the demon one by one by his demonic arms. "Now kiss!" He shouted and grabbed both of them, crushing each other and threw them away. Nero scanned the whole area to make sure all demons were eliminated. He let out a workout breath and about checked on survivors. A weird bell noise attracted Nero's attention. He turned around and saw nothing. He hold his sword on his back and looking around his surrounding. He had a feeling someone was watching him, waiting a perfect timing to strike. Before he identified the noise, a creature appeared from nowhere and attacked him with the bigger version of scythe. Nero blocked it with his full strength. He was knocked out at the collapsed building. He quickly stood up and finally saw the true form of the attacker. It had almost the same pattern like Hell Caina but this one's a big one. It even got a bigger scythe than others.

**Hell Vanguard**

"So, you are the king of those demons." He stuck his sword on the ground, revving up Red Queen and taunting. "How about I make you a throne of grave?" The demon yelled and disappeared again. Nero put up his guard and looked around. He kept hearing the demon's yelling but it cannot be seen or found. A portal was created on Nero's standing. Nero widened his eyes and prepared to block whatever was that coming up. The demon raised up quickly with its scythe and hit Nero's sword. Nero barely blocked the attack and few scars were left on his body. He adjusted his balance and fired at the sneaky demon. But again, the demon dodged the bullets and hid in an unknown portal.

"What a pain in the ass." Nero mumbled angrily. He blamed himself that he should have brought more firepower. "Only if I bring out the devil breaker." He heard footsteps coming from the alley and a familiar woman appeared. "Hey, tough guy! You forgot this!"

Nico carried a few devil breakers and threw them to Nero. Nero dashed and jumped to grab one of the devil breakers - Overture. Hell Vanguard again, appeared from the ground and charged at Nero in the air. Nero quickly equipped Overture and used it on the demon. A huge palm-like electricity sparked and parried the demon's scythe. The force pushed down the demon and was crushed on the ground. Nero landed with multiple devil breakers on his hug. He put each one of them on the hanger behind his waist. The demon stood again and slowly approached Nero. It swinged down its huge scythe to attack Nero again. Nero smirked and dodged the attack, stuck his devil breaker on the body of the demon. He watched the demon and thumbed down with a smirk. "Bang." The demon looked at the devil breaker stuck on his body. The beep sound can be heard and starts getting quickier by time. By the time the demon knew what it was, the devil breaker caused an explosion. Nero watched over the fire caused by the explosion. A shadow appeared and walked out the fire. Hell Vanguard's cloth was completely burnt and exposed its huge skeleton body. Nero sighed, "Pretty stubborn, aren't you?" The demon made a laugh and disappeared into the portal again. This time, it became faster and it frequently used the portal to attack Nero on every side. Nero watched his disadvantage and equipped another devil breaker - Ragtime.

"Take your time!" The devil hunter aimed at the demon who just came out from the portal. But it was surrounded by a silver-transparent sphere. Its movement was completely slowed down like the time was stopping. Nero ran towards and grabbed its scythe. The demon was pulled out from the sphere and spinned around by Nero. He threw it to the wall and smashed on it. The demon attempted to escape but Nero didn't give it a chance. He smashes Ragtime and everything turned into extra slow motion except Nero. He slowly walked towards Hell Vanguard and grabbed its head. Once the time went back to normal, the demon noticed his head was grabbed tightly by the devil hunter.

"Payback time, asshole!" Nero smirked and yelled, smashing its face hardly into the ground. He kept smashing until he was satisfied. The demon was barely movable and its face was crushed into pieces. Nero stomped on its head as the final blow. The demon screamed and vanished into ashes. "Gotta go check the others." Nero grabbed his sword and ran towards one of the fallen fighters. He checked his pulse and the fighter was still alive. Nero and other people carried other survivors to the safe place.

Nero walked back to the orphan house and opened the door. Most of the combatants were injured during the fight against demons. Fortunately, there's not many casualties and all of them survived, only they required time to fully recover. Nero carried the survivor and placed him on the assigned bed. Before he can go, he spots a familiar face at the front door.

"You are…" Nero widened his eyes, seeing a lady in formal suit, having short blonde hair and glasses. She is Elliot's secretary - Karen. She approached Nero slowly while looking at the injured people, "Looks like you guys had some tough time."

"There's some demons attacking just now. Glad there aren't many casualties." While Nero talked to Karen, Nico jumped into the conversation. "You are that old man's lady yesterday. Whatcha doing here?" Nero was a little shocked by Nico's sudden appearance. Karen pushed up her glasses and continued, "I was ordered to send you to the airport." Nero noticed the clock at the wall and widened his eyes. "Crap! That time already." The time was pointed exactly as the time where they were supposed to go to take the flight.

"Look. Maybe we should delay the flight. You see…" Nero was stopped by Karen and she snapped her finger. A group of medical staff walked in the orphan house. "No need to worry. We knew this might happen, so we had everything prepared." Nero frowned by the secretary's word. "You knew?" The medical team took out the utilities and provided medical treatment to the injured professionally. After watching the medical team doing their job, he turned to Karen and asked, "What do you mean by that?" Before he could speak more, Nico suddenly looked like she remembered something and shouted, "Shit! Bad news! Docs were stolen!" Nero widened his eyes again after hearing the news from Nico. "The what!? You mean the documents from the Order of the Sword!?"

"They stole part of the documents from the lab. Well, I do have my own backup for still…" Nero was confused and let out a sigh, trying to process all complicated stuff happening today. "Any idea who's doing that?" Nero asked. Nico pointed to a person who was sitting on the bed. His forehead was wrapped by bandits due to the injured. Nero and his group approached him to get more details about the break in.

"You okay?" The man looked at Nero and was surprised. He stood up quickly and shouted, " Nero!? Hear me out. Ahh…!" He felt pain from his body and slowly sat on the bed. "Easy. What happened?." After the injured man recovered from the pain, he held his fists tighty, "I saw there were strangers unknown sniffing around the town. I tried to follow them to the lab. But I was spotted and knocked out fast. Like this" He touched his head and continued, "These guys are… what to describe. Futuristic? Those robotic stuff, technologies , armies… I have never seen such things before." His words started getting Nero and Nico's curiosity.

"They were ahead of this already." Karen looked down and mumbled. Nero heard the words and asked the secretary, "What do you mean by that?" Karen returned to face Nero and spoke, "According to our intel team, DEM was probably behind all these.." Before she could explain more, she looked at her watch and noticed there's not much time to explain everything. "I know all of you have a lot of questions, but I'm afraid your plane doesn't wait for our little conversation."

"So, what now?" Nero sighed. Not only demons assaulted the city. But also whatever the hell is that organization or evil company stealing the research of Order of the Sword. "Well, I can dig up what the hell those guys are stealing. But, it's gotta take a long time to find out." Nico took out the cigarette and lightened it. After a taste of it, she continued, "Looks like I gotta call ladies for help." Nero quickly knew who Nico mentioned, the dangerous duo from Dante's office - Lady and Trish. But he heard they were assigned another job by Morrison.

"Alright. I think I should let you handle the rest." Nico threw out the cigarette and smiled, "Remember to give me more cut after this job." Nero sighed and followed Karen to the car she prepared.

"What's next?" Nero asked. Karen started the engine and spoke, "Nex stop, Tengu City."

* * *

**Somewhere in Tengu City**

"..."

"..."

"..."

3 boys were in the public bath, enjoying the warm temperature of the water that brought comfort to the body. Except, both of them did not really enjoy it. Especially the spiky hair boy and white hair boy.

"Errrr… what the hell is this, Itsuka?" Tomomachi asked his friend nervously.

"Well… I thought we could get closer and know each other by hanging out together."

"But why here?" He complained.

"..." Ren closed his eyes, trying to ignore the shouting from his classmate and enjoy the time. Well, after all those jobs, he rarely got the chance to actually rest.

"What is this, Reine!? Why picking this place? You know what Natsumi had done to Tomomachi and Yato during that day. Picking this place only bringing more suspicions." Shido spoke silently while holding the earpieces at his left ear.

"But they didn't refuse your invitation right?" Reine spoke calmly from the other side. She was watching on the screen which displayed the status of both of them in the public bath.

"There's a reason why I pick this place. Even though she can disguise as anyone perfectly, she is still a girl. My suggestion is that she possibly will be awkward or any kind of behavior if she sees man's naked." Reine explained to Shido about the reason for picking this place. Shido frowned while listening to her explanation. But he can't deny it. If Natsumi disguised as someone invited by Shido, she might have little reaction to this event.

"I see. So if they showed up here, does that mean they're not?"

"Probably. For now, let's just wait and see."

* * *

**Few minutes later**

"..." Both of them kept quiet a long time. Their faces and bodies were getting red by the heat of the public bath. They all were waiting for someone to break the silence.

"Any unusual status, Reine?" Shido asked after the long awkward silence.

"Nothing." She touched her chin and thought for next move. "Time for plan B, Shin. Try to close contact with Tomomachi and Yato."

"What!?" Reine's suggestion stunned Shido and let out a shout.

"Why the shout, Itsuka?" Yato stared at Shido and Tomomachi also did the same but quickly reverted to front after the stare.

"No...nothing." Shido spoke. "Are you sure about this, Reine?"

"Let's say if Natsumi was getting use to these, she will probably end up little strange behavior if she had contact with any opposite sex."

"I see." Shido didn't think about this trick. If Natsumi was able to resist watching naked body of male. But if someone tried to touch her or any sudden contact. She will be showing flaws and exposed.

"Here goes nothing." Shido took a deep breath and swum into the center of them. He raised his left hand and placed on Tomomachi shoulder.

"Geek! What are you doing, Ituska!?" Tomomachi reacted highly and draw back.

"How was it, Reine?"

"Hmmm… the status changed but not so much. Now, try Yato next."

Shido raised his right hand and placed it on Ren 's shoulder.

"Eh?" Ren watched Shido pat his shoulder and looked at him.

"Hmmm… nothing much." Reines continued while observing the stats.

"Reine, what should I do next? They are staring at me." Shido panicked and asked for the next steps. A friend of them acted weird today and they were highly cautious to Shido.

"Well, try to be more aggressive." Reine suggested.

"Hey, Itsuka…. we are friends right?" Tomomachi asked poorly while watching his friend slowly approach him.

"Oh… yeah. We are…" Shido felt guilty for doing this. But it's for greater good. He then looked at Ren who was staring at him.

"Hey, what's your deal?" Ren was asking while he raised his both hands and tried to defend himself.

"Well…" Shido took another deep breath again and closed his eyes, raised out his both hands and hold tight on both of their thighs.

"Geek!"

"!"

Tomomachi quickly ran towards the door entrance. He opened the door and went out of the public bath while screaming. "Ahhhh!"

"Hey. Tomomaci!" Shido tried to call his escaping classmate but he was already left.

"So it is true." Shido looked at Ren hiding behind a rock and giving him a disgusting glare.

"True?" Shido questioned.

"You are interested in …" Before he could spoke, he was interrupted by Shido denial.

"Nonononono… that is not what you think of!"

"Is that so…" Ren still doesn't believe what Shido told him. Shido let out a sigh and held at his earpieces.

"Should I tell him, Reine?" Shido demanded to let Ren know about the whole thing. Then, a long awaited response from the other side.

"Considering he's one of the witnesses , I guess we have nothing to lose to tell the truth. Also, you can use this chance to ask more about him." Shido put down his hand and slightly walked towards him. "Actually…" Shido explained everything about the whole date. About Natsumi little game. About what happens if he fails to find her.

"I see. To find out Natsumi disguised as one of your closest friends. You have to find out by dating them."

Ren concluded the whole story while back in the public bath. "Yep. Sorry for the inconvenience." Shido apologized for the scene he made.

"At least you are not that kind of people." He joked. Shido were bitter smile and glad the confuse between them was finally resolved.

After the bath, they both bought themselves some drinks to relax from the heat. "So… how's your blue hair neighbour and her rabbit friend?" Ren asked. "You mean Yoshino and Yoshinon? They're doing fine." Shido answered back with a smile.

"I see." Ren finished the last glup and threw the bottle to the trash bin. He went to the cabinet where he placed his stuff and put on his cloth. While Ren was put on his clothes, Shido spotted there was a long and slightly wide scar behind his back. It looked like a wound hitted by the sharp object. Ren noticed Shido's attention after put on his shirt.

"Something wrong?" Ren asked. Shido looked away and continued to finish up his changing of clothes. After the change, he looked at Ren again and asked, "Yato, about your job...". While Shido approached him, Ren ignored his question and opened the main door.

"Hey, wait!" He stopped and stood still in front of Ren before he left the shop. Shido wanted to… no, he insisted to know what was the story of his classmate, why become a mercenary, why always… showing that expression. Ren looked at Shido's stubbornness and let out a sigh.

"Listen. I know we are in the same class this year. And we barely knew each other." Shido tried to argue with his classmate, "But you know, we can…". Before he finished his sentence, Ren knocked away Shido and continued to exit the shop.

"I know you wanted to be friends with me, but it's for the best if we stayed like this, a normal classmate." He opened the door and greeted Shido. "Have a good day, Itsuka."

"What a rude guy, isn't it?" Reine watched everything from her screen and spilled her feelings to Shido's classmate. "No. He isn't" Shido shook his head. "Why?" Reine curiously about Shido denied Ren's rudeness.

"He may be rude, but I can feel it. He was always lonely, but he was also…afraid." Shido held tight both his fists while standing still.

* * *

**At Ren apartment**

He unlocked the door and walked into his apartment. He threw his bag on the ground and jumped on the bed. He looked at the ceiling, his sleepiness started and slowly closed his eyes.

_No… I don't want to leave you!_

_Go… save yourself!_

_Mom, where are you!?_

_Aurgh!_

_MOM!_

He opened his eyes and sat on the bed. He placed his right hand on his forehead and recalled the dream just now. He mumbled, "Mom…"

He stood up and walked to the bathroom. He changed to pajamas and prepared to call it a day. After he left the bathroom, he looked at the wall clock. It was about midnight. If he doesn't go to sleep now, he definitely will be late for school tomorrow.

He laid on the bed and covered himself with a blanket. He closed his eyes and went to sleep. But he heard a girl laughing and immediately raised his body. He looked around but found no one except himself was in the room.

But again, the laugh can be heard from nowhere. He stood up and checked every corner in his room. But end up not a single sign of intruders. The laughs keep getting frequent and louder and he instantly recognized those laughs.

"Natsumi!?" After recognizing that laugh, he immediately reached for his back, only to notice his sword was currently in repair. "Crap!" He cursed. Suddenly, he felt powerless, his body became weak and unable to move on his own.

"Looking for me?" A voice spoke behind him. He tried to turn his head around but he lacked the strength to do it, completely falling on the ground. "Nightly night." He looked up and saw a girl in witch costume kneeling down. But what happened after that, he can't remember but the laugh of Natsumi.

* * *

**The next day**

"Shido, bad news."

"What happened?"

"Ren and Yuzuru disappeared."

"What!?"


	8. Chapter 7

A boy ran through the burning area, using all his might. He had black short hair, wearing light blue shirt and brown short pants. Despite his arms and knees having few injuries, these didn't stop him from looking for someone.

"Mom…" He mumbled, ran and ran, trying to find his mother. After a few blocks of building, he finally noticed a familiar face. A woman with long straight hair shared the same color with the boy's hair. She was looking at something terrified based on her expression. She noticed the boy's appearance and shouted, "Ren! What are you doing here?"

The boy shouted, " I can't just leave you right there! I'm here to save you, Mom!" He ran towards his mother. But he was knocked off by an explosion from the building, his head was bleeding, yet he stood up slowly and looked at his mother. His eyes were widened and his face was full of horror. The woman was stabbed from behind, a black creature appeared behind and stabbed her with a long sword.

"Ren… run…." She told his son to run with her last breath. The black creature pulled off its sword, the woman fell on the ground and bled. "MOM!" The young boy screamed, ran towards his mother. But he was stopped by a fallen pipe, blocking his path. He looked around and found a small size of hole able to fit his size. He kneeled and passed through the hole. His surroundings were extremely. Every time he contacted his knee on the ground, he felt the pain on it and yet he continued to climb.

After climbing out from the hole, he watched his mother lying on the ground, he quickly approached her and noticed the wound was big on her chest. She barely stayed conscious and looked at his son. She smiled and touched his face, " Be brave… my son." She gave out his final word, her hands fell and closed her eyes. The boy watched his mother and yelled, "Nononononononononono!" He kept shaking his mother, wishing to wake her up. He cried, begging his mother to stay awake. But his powerless begging didn't work. He looked at the creature and walked away, watching it have a bright red core at his back. He stared fiercely and cursed angrily, "I swear…"

* * *

Ren opened his eyes, finding himself at an unknown place. His surroundings were completely dark. He raised up and sensed watery under his foot. He looked down and he stepped on the water. He massaged his head, trying to recall what's happening yesterday.

"Oh right, Natsumi!" He remembered when he was about to sleep. He noticed Natsumi laugh in his room. By the time he could see her, he felt powerless and passed out.

"This might be one of her trick." He looked around, nothing can be seen and heard until a water drop sound came from nowhere. He looked around and found a blue wisp raised from the water. The wisp flew to a single direction and stopped, expecting someone to follow it.

Ren was curious what it was. It didn't feel like a threat but he still needed to raise his guard. He slowly walked towards it, the wisp continued to guide him. They walked a long and endless path. The water below his feet was bizarre too. He didn't feel any wet contact on it. Almost everything he saw was nothing but an illusion, or rather… nothingless?

The wisp was stopped at some point. The wisp slowly touched down the water surface and went into the water. Before Ren could approach the dropping point, he fell into the water, felt like a solid surface suddenly cracked and exposed a hole. He tried to swim up but the water kept pulling him downwards. He was panicking for a second until he noticed he could breathe under the water. He could also see clearly which were not logical in real life. He noticed that wisp again. He swimmed down and approached it.

After swimming to it, he can finally see what's the shining wisp. It was a crystal surrounded by blue light. "Woah." He was attracted by the color and the beauty of crystal. If it was sold on the market, he would definitely make a lot of money from it. When he reached his hand to the crystal, a deep voice called him out in a slow tone.

"Ren Yato." Ren quickly turned around and checked his surroundings. But there's nothing but the crystal and himself. The second time the voice called his name, he finally knew where it was, the crystal itself.

"The crystal talked?" Ren looked at the crystal starting to flash quicker and quicker, it pushed Ren away from it. The strong force kept pushing to the top. Again, he heard the mystery voice spoken.

"To gain this power, you must possess a noble will and strong determination. But now, you are far from ready." Before he could get the chance to think, he was about to reach the surface of the water. He was tossed out from the underwater and falling downwards.

"Woah!" Ren awoke on the bed, his forehead was sweating and his heart rate beat rapidly. He rubbed his eyes and noticed this unfamiliar room. The bed was better than his room, the white curtain at his right side. The windows at his left but cannot see through it. He noticed there's tube stuck in his right hand. The tube was connected to a pack of fluid. Looked like he was in the medical room.

The door of the room opened and a woman in her white coat walked in. She has pale-blue hair tied with a right side ponytail. She looked at Ren and another person walked into the room. He widened his eyes, watching the familiar face.

"Itsuka? Why are you here?" He questioned. Shido looked at Ren and smiled. He looked relieved after watching Ren awoke. "His blood pressure and heart rate shows normal. He'll be fine." Reine described Ren's current body condition and walked out the room.

"I'll leave the rest to you, Shin." Shido nodded and carried the chair, sitting next to Ren. There's no talk between them until Ren starts asking, "Why am I here?" Shido looked up and spoke, "It's a long story."

* * *

**Earlier that day**

"Enough of your games. We won." Shido declared. All of Spirits and his friend appeared in the small room. Most of them were barely awake, lying on the ground.

"Everyone!" Shido shouted. Everyone started awaked by the shout. "Shido… where am I?" Tohka asked. Shido smiled after seeing Tohka and everyone was fine. Shido looked at Natsumi 's direction but he saw someone else. A little with green messy long hair, wearing an orange costume and witch hat. Possibly the same age as Yoshino.

Shido stood up and approached her. "Natsumi?" He asked curiously. But the little girl didn't respond. She was blanked for a few seconds until she realized the man who stood in front of her. She widened her eyes and made a gasp. She summoned the broom and light surrounding her whole body. The little girl turned back to Natsumi again.

Her face was bright red and tried herself not to scream. "Third… this is the third time you saw my secret! I had never been so humiliated in my entire life!" She spun around the broom and knocked on the floor. A light brightens the whole room and Natsumi's declaration. "Don't think this will be over. I will make sure your entire life is ruined!" After the light slowly faded, Shido opened his eyes and noticed Natsumi had disappeared, again.

He felt someone's pulling his shirt from behind. He turned around and widened his eyes. Everyone transformed into little kids. "Shido… why are you suddenly so tall?" Tohka asked. "No, it's because we became small." Kotori was shocked but quickly remained calm. Everyone looked at each other, noticing everyone except Shido were changed.

"Oh no… this is…" Kotori quickly interrupted Shido. "Yep. The 'last present of the night' before Natsumi left." Shido was having a headache while watching them become no more than 10 years old children. "What should we do…?" Shido mumbled. "Save your complaints for now. We have a bigger problem here." Kotori pointed at somewhere. Shido looked at the pointing direction and found out his classmate - Ren was still unconscious.

"Hey, Ren." He walked to his classmate and tried to wake her up. Shido looked at his classmate and there was still no sign of waking up. "Hmm!?" He noticed something unusual. Ren was barely breathing and his forehead was sweating. He put his finger at the side of Ren's neck. He was shocked and shouted, "Ren… has no breath…" Everyone in the room looked at Shido in shock. Kotori quickly joined his brother and did the same thing and also checked his pulse. She frowned and spoke, "We need to give him medical treatment! His heartbeat was almost to none. Quickly, call Reine!" Shido immediately pulled out his smartphone and made a call. The others also joined them.

"Wait a minute. He's that big brother who helped us!" Yoshinon shouted after recognizing the unconscious young man. "Will…he be alright?" Yoshino asked. Kotori looked at Yoshino and shook her head. "If he doesn't get the treatment right now, he will be in danger." Kotori continued, "Report, Shido." Shido closed his smartphone and looked at Kotori. "Reine said she will transfer us back to ship now." Everyone was surrounded with lights and teleported back to the Fraxinus.

* * *

**Back to present**

"So… I was captured by that damn witch and almost died by her hands." Ren spoke poorly, trying to understand Shido's explanation.

"How do you feel?" Shido asked. Ren stretched his hands and did a small exercise. "At least I'm not dead. " Shido smiled and stood up from the chair. "Rest as you wish. We will explain to the school." He walked to the door and left the room. Leaving Ren alone in the bed. He lied back to the bed and looked at the top. "Nobe will and strong determination…" he mumbled, recalling the weird dream. He shook his head and continued back to rest.

Shido walked on the hallway and saw a familiar face waiting for him. Reine stood at the front door of the commander room. He approached her and spoke quietly, "Is that really okay not to tell him 'that'?" Reine nodded and replied, "It's for the best not to tell him for now." Reined walked into the command room and so does Shido.

He walked towards the twintail girl wearing a commander outfit. She spotted Shido's arrival and greeted, "How was he?" Shido looked at his sister and nodded, "He's fine. He just needs more rest."

"I see. But we still have work to do" She snapped her fingers and a man with blonde long hair walked in front of him. "You called?" The little commander assigned a command, "Show 'that' to us." The blonde-haired man bowed and commanded his team, "All units, show Ren's Yato profile." Every member of Fraxinus operated their terminal. The main screen showed the full info of Ren Yato.

Shido looked at the main screen and asked, "This is…" The man explained, "This is everything we collected about Ren Yato. I will do the briefing." Kotori nodded to allow him to start the briefing.

"Ren Yato. 16 years old. Currently living alone in a rent department. He was a student of Raizen High School. He doesn't have many friends or relatives except…" The screen changed and showed an image of a coffee shop.

"He is always hanging out in this shop. He had some sort of 'connection' with the shop owner." Shido asked curiously, "Connection?" The man continued, "Yes, Ren Yato was working as a mercenary." Shido wanted to ask but was quickly interrupted by Kotori. "In simple words, your friend is willing to do any dirty jobs to get paid." Shido widened his eyes and gulped, couldn't imagine what kind of dirty jobs his classmate took. The man coughed and continued, "Now, here comes the curious parts…" The screen changed again and showed the image of Chief.

"First, we tried to dig out this man called 'Chief'. But whatever methods we tried, we can't find any single clue from him. Neither his background or his closers." Kotori frowned, "So he's a man without the past. Indeed interesting." Kotori looked troubled, learning all the technology they had but still cannot find a thing about Chief. She suspected he's far more than an ordinary coffee shop owner and broker.

"Second, about Ren Yato's past. He was moved into this town six years ago. But her background was rather…interesting." Kanzaki switched the screen. The screen showed a middle-aged woman with long white hair. "Is she…" Shido asked curiously, looked like he knew who she was. Kanzaki nodded his head and continued, "That is his mother - Sayako Yato." Shido stared at the woman on the screen. "His mother…" Kanzaki stuck for a few seconds but quickly went back to the conversation. "Unfortunately, she passed away in the fire disaster five years ago." Shido widened his eyes while hearing the unfortunate thing that happened to his classmate.

Fire disaster - the most horrible event happened five years ago in this city. Everything in the city was burnt away and countless casualties. Many people were taken by the merciless fire. One of his friends - Origami Tobiichi's parents were involved in this disaster too. But to think his other classmates suffered the same fate. It must be why he remained cold to him.

Kanzaki was about to continue but quickly interrupted by the twin-tailed commander. "I think that's enough. I felt bad just digging this kind of private stuff. We should just leave it."

"A wise decision." Kanzaki bowed politely. "Now, for the final and the top secret."

"Top secret?" Shido asked curiously.

The screen switched and showed the status of Ren Yato and a small clip of video. "This was recorded after he was sent to the treatment room." Before Kanzaki explained, Kotori raised his hand. She was annoyed and worried. She stared at his brother and gave Shido a chilling feeling.

"Listen there, Shido!" She declared loudly. "When this briefing is over, do not, ever never ever, tell this to anybody beside this room!" Shido tried to ask more but immediately was mouth shut by the fierce-looking commander. "Swear it!" She stared at Shido in full seriousness. Shido raised his right hand and sweared, "Ok. I swear. I will not tell anybody after this." Kotori relieved after hearing her brother's swear and nodded, "Kanzaki, continue." The vice commander nodded and continued his briefing.

* * *

**Hours later**

"..." Shido left the room in silence. He stood still in the middle of the hallway. He leaned at the wall and held his front head. He was full of doubts and thinking. He stared at the top until he heard someone calling him. "Yo, Itsuka." Ren walked towards him. Shido faced him with a complicated emotion but he remembered what Kotori just said.

Remember, just treat him like your normal classmate. Don't let him have any suspiciousness.

"Man…" Shido mumbled. Ren noticed Shido was not in the mood and talked, "What's that face? Something in your mind?" Shido shook his head. "Nothing." He spoke with a bitter smile. "Is that so? By the way…" he waved his hands to signal Shido to come closer. "What the hell is this place? Are you into some kind of secret services?" Shido smiled and replied, "You could say something like that."

While they were talking, a woman cut into their conversation. "You are Ren Yato, right?" It was Reine who just came out of the command room. Ren looked at her with a strange look. "Wait, have I met you before?" He asked. "I was one of the teachers in your class, remember?" She answered plainly. Ren nodded until he noticed something different. "Wait wait wait wait! Why is the high school teacher here!? Again, what the hell is this place actually!?"

Oh boy!? Shido sighed while watching his classmate in panic. "I know you have a lot of things in your mind. I'm not really good at explaining. But I will try my best. Follow me.." She guided him and Shido to a meeting room.

* * *

**Meeting room**

"So, let me get this straight. You called yourself Ratatoskr. Some sort of organization which seeks a peaceful way to deal with Spirits. We are currently in a flying ship called Fraxinus. Then, I was captured by the Spirit and almost got myself killed." Ren repeated what just Reine explained to him. Shido looked at the white-haired boy who still remained his calm after the story.

"You… seem normal to this?" Shido asked. Ren drank the cup of water on the table and spoke, "Well, this is already normal. I seem much more abnormal shit happened. You know, there's one time I met a lady with 8 eight eyes on her face and…" While he tried to share his story, Shido immediately stopped him. "No… I think that's enough." He wanted to know more about him but not this kind. Beside, dinner was about to start.

"Okay… what do you guys need?" Ren leaned back at his seat, holding his hands. "With your technology, you guys probably digged whatever the hell I am." Shido looked down and apologized, "Sorry, I… we have no intent to do these." Ren let out a sigh and threw his hand. "Don't be. If I was in the same position, I probably did the same." A moments of silence later, Ren continued to ask, "So, what's your next move?" He looked at Shido and Reine, trying to understand what their plan was.

"The only thing we can do is wait for Natsumi to appear in this world. Once she does that, we will use the tracker to track her signal immediately." Reine explained. Ren listened to her plan and nodded, "Sounds like a plan." Considering Natsumi has the ability to hide herself, it will be hard to find her. She promised she'll be back someday. But that's only the matters of time.

"So, what's your plan?" Reine looked at Ren who still had some thought. He stood and stretched his back. "I guess I have to go back to my apartment. I had some private business to take care of" He asked. Only they remained silent and looked at each other. Shido looked at Reine who adjusted her glasses. He smiled awkwardly, had some difficulty to explain. Ren noticed the unusual, "What is it? You guys looked like the cat got your tongue."

"About that…" he used his smartphone and scrolling. Ren was unable to understand what his classmate wanted to say. Shido stopped at a certain point and showed it to him. "I think it's better if you read this." Ren held Shido's phone. It shows a local news said there's an apartment that was burnt down. And that apartment is …

"Wait!? That's my apartment!?" Ren was in shock that his only living place was burnt into crisp. "Then…" Ren returned Shido's phone and looked down. Shido was worried about him but he was surprised by what he shouted next. "All my movie collections are gone!" He shouted loudly, kneeling on the ground. Shido widened his eyes and surprised his reaction. "You worried about your movie collection?" Shido questioned. Ren stared at Shido and shouted, "That's not only the movie collections! That's all classic movies I bought for years. Do you know how much time and money I spent on those!"

Ren slowly stood up, wiping out his tears and stared at Shido. "So, which asshole burned dares to burn down my apartment!?" He cracked his fists, his eyes contained flames and tightened his teeth. The door opened, a little girl walked in and talked, "How about you recalled what kind of dumbass move you did last week!?" Ren looked at the little girl who approached him and shouted.

"Who is she?" Ren pointed at her. Shido introduced, "That's my little sister, Kotori Itsuka." Reine added on, "Also the commander of this ship." Ren looked at her and nodded, "Okay. Wait, she's the commander of this ship!? Isn't just a kid!?" He screamed. Kotori yelled back, "I'm not a kid, you simple-minded monkey!"

"For a little girl like you, you sure had some horsepower. Definitely has the mouth of a commander." His rudeness immediately pissed Kotori even more. If she wasn't for Shido's sake and turned into this child form, she will definitely burnt him into crisp.

"So, what are you talking about?" Ren asked. Kotori took her time to recover from anger. She replied, "Think!" Ren tried to figure out what he had done for the last week. He can't recall what he did until he remembered the treasure hunting request he accepted. "Oh..." Until this point, he looked like he figured out what she tried to say.

"You mean those guys are looking for revenge and burnt down my apartment as a warning?" Ren asked curiously. Kotori made a face palm, trying to calm herself down but she clearly can't. Not only she underestimated his reckless action but also his awareness. "Looks like we saved a dumbass who doesn't know the situation…"

"Do you have any idea who the hell are you stealing from!?" She shouted angrily again. Ren scratched his head and spoke plainly, "Errr… DEM I think?" Shido widened his eyes after hearing that organization name.

DEM - the organization who are against their current method. Dealt the spirit by force. In simple words, kill. They were also one of the biggest companies to provide technology to the world. Military, Transport, Medical, all of them were getting advanced without their help. They recently dealt with them a few months ago.

"Yes, it is DEM! Do you have any idea how dangerous they are!? They could wipe you out of existence if they wanted to!" Ren kept getting yelled at by the little commander and Ren put his finger into his ears, ignoring her scold. Shido can only try his best to calm his sister down.

"Is that so?" The next word came from Ren surprised Shido and widened his eyes. And Kotori, she just held down his fists tightly. Before she yelled, Reine stopped their conversation.

"I think we should call it for a day. Any argument will not lead well. Additionally, we have kids to take care at home." Reinie proposed her idea and looked at Ren. "We will provide you a temporary shelter for you." Ren smiled and replied, "Well, at least better than sleeping off at the road." Kotori addon Reine's speech. "Any dumb or reckless moves from you, you will be toss out immediately! Got it!?"

"Right, right. Little one." Ren raised his hand, signed as surrender and laid back on the chair. Kotori can only endure the cocky young boy's attitude and leaves the meeting room with Reine.

* * *

**Outside Spirit Apartment**

"So this is my new temporary place." Ren was standing in front of a fifth floor tall apartment. He was holding his smartphone and the essentials which he bought before coming here. He was relieved he had some saving to cover his essential stuff. As for the rest of his collection, his heart was still breaking that all of them were completely burnt away. Part of the reason was on him. Knocked into a private secret base and causing major spotlight, no wonder they were looking for payback.

Ren sighed and about to go in. But he heard a voice calling him. Hey." Ren looked up and mumbled, "Isn't too many people calling me recently?" He looked in the direction and watched a middle-age man with short white-hair, wearing a dark blue jacket and red shirt inside. Based on his look, Ren guesses it's probably a foreigner asked for the direction.

"Hey, do you know… opps.." The man stopped while asking. He cleared his throat and asked again in a different language, "This... place… where…" The man tried his best to speak their language and showed the address to Ren. He read the address and immediately knew the location. "Oh, it's here." Ren pointed at the apartment which was about to start his new life.

"Thanks, wait… you speak English?" The foreigner was surprised by the young boy able to speak English properly. "A little. Most of the time I learnt from the movies." Ren continued, "So, are you looking for someone?" The foreigner nodded his head, "Sort of. I was told to wait for a person called Itsuka... Shido?" Ren raised his eyebrow after hearing his classmate's name. Considering he was into some sort of international organization, there's nothing odd when some foreigner looked for his classmate. Before he could ask more, he heard footsteps walking towards him.

"Itsuka?" Ren saw his friend approaching and greeted them. "Sorry, I'm late." Shido looked at the foreigner behind the white-haired boy. He walked towards him and shook his hand. "You must be Mr. Nero, right?" The foreigner chuckled and replied, "Yep. Shido Itsuka, right? Can't believe they send someone young." Ren was confused about the relation between them and asked, "Do you guys know each other?"

"It's kinda confusing but…" He stopped and walked into the apartment. "I hope you don't mind. But from now on, Mr. Nero will be your roommate today." Shido gave his best warm welcome to Nero and Ren to their new living place. Both of them looked at each other and shook hands. "Ren Yato. Nice to meet you. "

"Nero. Nice to meet you too." Both of them greeted each other politely. After the greeting, Ren went into the apartment alone, leaving Nero standing still and stretching his hand. He stared at that boy and mumbled, "What is this feeling? Feels… familiar?" Nero felt a strange and yet familiar feeling while shaking hands with the boy. He can't really describe what it is but he can feel that Ren was not ordinary. Shido noticed the devil hunter was acting weird and called out, "Mr. Nero? Are you alright?" "No. I'm fine." Nero tried not to think much. Continued to follow them into the apartment.


End file.
